Vol. 35 No. 1
January-February 2013

International Call for Proposals in Sustainable Chemistry

On 26 November 2012, IUPAC and participating national funding agencies issued an international call for proposals on “Novel Molecular and Supramolecular Theory and Synthesis Approaches for Sustainable Catalysis.”

The call is intended to foster multinational cooperation in sustainable chemistry. All researchers working in the field of sustainable chemistry and eligible to apply for financial support from their respective participating national research councils, are invited to apply. This program is designed for small teams of three or four principal investigators, encompassing three countries. While larger teams may be considered, it is incumbent upon the team to articulate a clear and strong plan that optimizes both scientific coherence and effective management of resources. Each team will submit a single, joint proposal.

The motivation for this call is to foster networking among excellent scientists on topics in chemistry exemplified by a three-year program in sustainable chemistry. Grants will support basic experimental and theoretical research. A successful proposal will meet the following goals:

1. introduce novel approaches to develop a new generation of catalysts in which rare elements are replaced with earth-abundant elements;
2. successfully address a significant environmental problem.

This grant program does not support (i) basic research that focuses on biological techniques, cellular processes, or biomedical problems; (ii) applied research that focuses on extended solids and bulk materials; (iii) design, optimization, or other engineering aspects of devices; (iv) engineering aspects of chemistry, such as scale-up, processing, transport dynamics, and long-term stability.

This call involves the following partners:

• Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil; Mr. Alexandre Roccatto <[email protected]>
• National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), China; Prof. Guojun Zhang <[email protected]>
• National Science Foundation (NSF), United States of America; Dr. Zeev Rosenzweig <[email protected]> or Dr. Carol Bessel <[email protected]>
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V. (DGF), Germany; Dr. Markus Behnke <[email protected]>

Research teams interested in this opportunity should be aware of the following important dates:

• Letters of intent are due 1 February 2013.
• Full proposals for eligible projects are due 29 March 2013.
• Final results of this call will be communicated to applicants by 30 September 2013.
• Funding of all awards will start no later than January 2014.

The call is coordinated by the IUPAC Division of Chemistry and the Environment. Questions can be addressed to the call secretariat at [email protected].

Guidelines for Applicants are available at the IUPAC Call web address <www.iupac.org/news/news-detail/article/international-call-for-proposals-in-sustainable-chemistry.html> and at the relevant partner websites.

[postprint: The present Call for Proposals is modeled after the first international call in polymer science (IUPAC project 2006-013-1-020) and will follow guidelines compiled and released under project 2010-032-3-400.]