Deepak Nitrite Limited (DNL) and the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on research and development.
As part of this MOU, DNL has set up an R&D centre within the NCL Innovation Park in close vicinity to NCL in order to leverage the expertise and facilities of NCL. The R&D centre has been incorporated as Deepak Research & Development Foundation (DRDF), a fully-owned subsidiary of DNL.

This agreement between DNL and NCL will represent a new model for public-private partnerships wherein the research expertise, inventive spirit and resources of a leading publicly funded research laboratory and the process engineering and development skills, manufacturing expertise and business insights of an established private sector company will be combined to develop innovative new processes and products while also delivering end-to-end research services.

The DRDF will be the first such facility to be set up in the newly opened NCL Innovation Park. The NCL Innovation Park is a 43,000 sq m facility being developed by the NCL to support the birth, growth and expansion plans of research and knowledge-based business entities through critical stages of their growth by providing ready-to-occupy space with easy access to knowledge centres (like NCL), knowledge workers, business networks and other resources. The NCL Innovation Park shall also be home to the Venture Center, a business incubator. The Venture Center will initially occupy 10,000 sq ft of built up area and aim to nucleate and nurture techno-logy and knowledge-based enterprises.