The Project

Summary

C-H activation: what and why?

Relying on the functionalisation of previously considered latent, yet omnipresent C-H bonds, C-H activation offers a real breakthrough in organic chemistry and allows reconsidering beaten tracks in synthesis, retrosynthesis and late stage diversification for rapid hit-to-lead strategies.

It is consequently one of the most rapidly expanding fields of synthetic chemistry.

Yet, its implementation in the non-academic sector is still scarce, as numerous obstacles still need to be overcome to render C-H activations truly appealing for a large-scale production of drugs, materials or key building blocks. In addition, current academia-industry interactions are still limited and young researchers able to implement these new competences are rare.

Accordingly, the target and ambition of the CHAIR project is dual: to educate a new generation of young chemists in this modern and promising field of chemistry while concomitantly designing new solutions to further improve the attractiveness of C-H activation for industrial purposes.

C-H Activation for Industrial Renewal

CHAIR fosters research training of early stage researchers (ESRs, i.e. PhD students) on CH-activation. Our project focuses on establishing strong bridges between academia and industry to develop new C-H activation methodologies and generalise their implementation in industry, from both R&D and production perspectives.

To do so, we are training 15 ESRs within the network’s laboratories, to carry-out 15 research projects.