History & reports

Milestones

• 2008: Air Liquide SA and Air Liquide Santé International launch the Air Liquide Foundation. They assign it 2 missions: first to support research projects and, second, to promote local development on the behest of Group employees. It is established as a  French corporate foundation and will serve society by drawing on resources of Air Liquide

• 2008-2013: Under the pole and Premup count among the foundation’s first scientific projects. From the start, the Foundation supports many employee-sponsored “micro-initiatives” in dozens of countries, such as education projects in Japan after the March 2011 tsunami. The Foundation’s five-year mandate is renewed in 2013

• 2013-2018: the Foundation extends its scientific work in Europe, as well as its social mission. It supports projects in altogether more than 40 countries. A 2nd five-year renewal of the Foundation is validated in 2018
• In 2019 the Foundation decides to pursue longer scientific  partnerships. In the social field, it will focus on job-skilling young people and adults, to promote their integration in the workplace. This leads to fewer, larger projects
• In 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Foundation receives extra funding from its sponsors, both for scientific research on the disease and for emergency aid to fragile populations
• As a consequence of the Foundation’s growth and increased focus, the “Projects selection committee” is replaced by a “scientific committee” and a “communities committee”
• In 2021, for the first time, the Foundation gets direct funding from Air Liquide shareholders for four projects

Focus

Employee involvement

From the outset, the founders wanted to directly involve the Group's employees. Thus, each of the projects supported by the Foundation is monitored by an Air Liquide employee. This is what makes our Foundation special.