INEOS: Our Benefactor

INEOS is a global chemical company whose products touch every aspect of modern day life.

In its 22 years, INEOS has become the UK’s largest private company, managing a complex network of businesses. It comprises 36 businesses with 194 sites in 29 countries throughout the world as well as consumer brands such as INEOS Automotive, INEOS Hygienics, and Belstaff, and a well-known sports portfolio.

INEOS and public health

INEOS has long been passionate about public health, and its trio of owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe, John Reece and Andy Currie are determined to join the fight to mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) for future generations.

Long committed to philanthropy in the public health space, INEOS has already funded initiatives such as The Daily Mile, which aims to get the world’s children active every day, and the UK’s Defence and Military Rehabilitation Centre, supporting rehabilitation for wounded soldiers. INEOS also supports local health causes around its global network of 194 sites, and provides health and fitness training for its 26,000 employees.

After seeing the impact of a Covid-19 pandemic the world was not prepared for, they decided that the time to act was now, and have provided £100m seed funding to found the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research. This represents an unprecedented corporate donation to the field of AMR, to create a new model of industry-academic collaboration at Oxford between one of the top research universities in the world, and the UK’s biggest private company.

While it will have no bearing on the academic agenda of the IOI, INEOS intends to work with the University of Oxford to support the organisation’s growth and development on the global stage in order to achieve its research aims and recreate the advances achieved at the beginning of antibiotic development.

The successful development of antibiotics was the result of unparalleled collaboration during World War II, between academia, industry and government - and we truly believe that such levels of collaboration are again vital to tackling AMR before it’s too late.