AVERY DENNISON MATERIALS BELGIUM

Their core work

Avery Dennison Materials Belgium is the R&D and manufacturing arm of the global Avery Dennison group, specializing in high-performance pressure-sensitive films, coatings, and specialty materials. Within H2020, they contributed their core competence in engineered surface films to maritime applications — specifically ship hull coatings designed to cut fuel consumption and emissions. Their work covers both anti-fouling chemistry (preventing biological growth on hulls) and biomimetic surface structures that trap air to reduce hydrodynamic drag. They operate as an industrial materials supplier and technology developer, bringing scalable coating production capabilities to research consortia that need to move from lab concept to deployable product.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first project (eSHaRk, from 2015), Avery Dennison focused on the chemistry of fouling release — making surfaces slippery enough that marine organisms cannot anchor, eliminating the need for biocidal paints while reducing drag. By their second project (AIRCOAT, from 2018), the focus shifted from passive surface chemistry to active physical micro-structure: coatings that mimic the Salvinia water-fern leaf to sustain an air film between hull and water, delivering friction reduction through a biomimetic mechanism. The direction is clear — from functional coating chemistry toward precision surface architecture and nature-inspired engineering, with emissions reduction remaining the constant driver throughout.

Avery Dennison Belgium is moving deeper into biologically inspired surface micro-structures for hydrodynamic efficiency, suggesting future collaborations could involve structured-film manufacturing, superhydrophobic surfaces, or drag-reduction materials applicable beyond shipping.

How they like to work

Avery Dennison Materials Belgium participates exclusively as a consortium partner — never as coordinator — which is consistent with their role as an industrial materials provider bringing manufacturing know-how to research-led projects rather than driving scientific agendas. Their two projects each involved mid-sized consortia, with 13 unique partners across 6 countries total, suggesting they are comfortable in multi-stakeholder Innovation Actions where they contribute a defined materials or production component. Working with them likely means well-scoped technical deliverables (material samples, coated prototypes, scale-up data) rather than project management responsibilities.

Avery Dennison Belgium has collaborated with 13 unique partners across 6 countries through their two H2020 projects, indicating a genuinely European network despite a narrow thematic focus. Their partnerships are concentrated in the maritime and materials science communities, with geographic reach consistent with North Sea / European shipping industry clusters.

What sets them apart

Avery Dennison is one of the world's largest pressure-sensitive materials manufacturers, and their Belgian entity brings that industrial-scale coating and film production capability directly into EU research consortia — a rare combination of Fortune 500 manufacturing infrastructure and active H2020 project participation. Unlike academic partners or pure-play coating startups, they can take a validated coating concept and demonstrate a credible path to commercial production at volume. For consortia working on ship hull technologies or surface-functional films for transport, they offer both the technical depth and the supply-chain credibility that turns project results into real products.

Highlights from their portfolio

• AIRCOAT
  The largest-funded of their two projects (EUR 552,986), AIRCOAT tackled one of the most technically ambitious problems in maritime drag reduction — replicating the Salvinia-effect air-retaining microstructure in a manufacturable hull coating, placing Avery Dennison at the frontier of biomimetic materials engineering.
• eSHaRk
  Their entry project into EU-funded maritime materials research, eSHaRk addressed the industry-wide need to replace toxic antifouling paints with non-biocidal fouling-release films, establishing Avery Dennison's credentials as a green-shipping materials supplier.