ERC Consolidator Grant to Prof. Melchiorre

12th February 2016 – Prof. Paolo Melchiorre has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to develop his project ‘Light-Driven Asymmetric Organocatalysis’ (CATA-LUX).

Visible light photocatalysis and metal-free organocatalytic processes are powerful strategies of modern chemical research with extraordinary potential for the sustainable preparation of organic molecules. However, these environmentally respectful approaches have to date remained largely unrelated. The proposed research seeks to merge these fields of molecule activation to redefine their synthetic potential. Light-driven processes considerably enrich the modern synthetic repertoire, offering a potent way to build complex organic frameworks. In contrast, it is extremely challenging to develop asymmetric catalytic photoreactions that can create chiral molecules with a well-defined three-dimensional arrangement. “By developing innovative methodologies to effectively address this issue, I aim at providing novel reactivity frameworks for conceiving light-driven enantioselective organocatalytic processes” – says professor Melchiorre.

Worth up to € 2 million per grant for up to 5 years, ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support researchers at the stage at which they are consolidating their own independent research team or programme. The scheme will strengthen independent and excellent new individual research teams that have been recently created.

ERC press release