INDAC-CHEM · An Industrial-Academic Chemistry Nursery for Economic Growth

Final Activity Report Summary - INDAC-CHEM (An industrial-academic chemistry nursery for economic growth)

Originally INDAC-CHEM aimed to support 8 PhD degree projects (288 person-months total) featuring multi-site training in organic chemistry and related subjects. This EU training target has been met and additional (non EU) funds have allowed us to extend the programme to 10 Fellows and provide 310.7 Fellow-months of total training without exceeding the original EU budget. Thus, the programme has exceeded its original expectations. Undoubtedly all of the Fellows will attain Ph.D. qualifications (5 have already done so), 3 more will attain this by May 2010, the 2 remaining (late starting Fellows) completing in 1-2 years on non EU funding. Three of the former students have already attained industrial or academic postdoctoral positions and the others have additional postdoctoral / industrial Fellowships pending. The research projects undertaken by the fellows (in the areas of: preparation and use of new organometallics, asymmetric / selective / organo-catalysis, methodology, mechanism and target/ligand synthesis) have led to 11 internationally refereed, high impact, chemistry journal articles and numerous (> 20) oral and poster presentations at national and international chemistry meetings (some winning prizes). A further 4-8 journal publications resulting from the Fellows' work is expected within 24 months; further dissemination from the meeting will occur at an EU COST D40 meeting in catalysis in Ankara Turkey in May 2010. In addition to receiving core training in organic chemistry the Fellows also attended annual training courses in bio and nano-technology and in presentation skills and career development. Data collected indicate that on average a fellow doubled their knowledge base as a result of the programme. Within the INDAC-CHEM project the following scientific achievements were attained: the first examples of copper-catalysed formation of quaternary carbon centres in high ee, first use of tandem gold-organocatalysis, and first simple procedure for rhodium-catalysed enantioselective conjugate addition of arylalanes to generate quaternary centres. All of these have been published in Angewandte Chemie - the highest impact journal dedicated solely to chemistry. More than 10 further papers detailing: the first use of liquid gallium to activate aluminium powder, the structure of Cu-Zn conjugate addition catalysts, natural product synthesis, new methodologies and techniques were published. Overall, the scientific output of the Fellows has been of the highest quality and above that typical of PhD recruits into organic chemistry - this can be judge by the fact that all 9 of the original INDAC-CHEM Fellows attained immediate employment either in industry or as postdoctoral scientists. Overall, the coordinator does not believe that the programme could have achieved more in time available and the framework of funding deployed. Compared against the project deliverables to the INDAC-CHEM contract, all 17 activity and 31 management goals have essentially been attained.

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