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Research Outline

Synthetic organic chemistry, which is a fundamental and important research field, has been significantly contributing to the foundation of advanced manufacturing in various fields such as medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, and materials science. Although synthetic methods for numerous useful materials in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, etc. have been realized, it is important for the future of Japan, a country with limited natural resources, not to be satisfied with the current level of science and technology. Japan must develop cutting-edge manufacturing science and technology in accordance with the most critical challenges in the 21st century—1) to establish a strategy that avoids using rare and depleted resources, 2) to create a sustainable recycling-oriented society, and 3) to continue to be a global leader in science and technology. To these ends, we have organized research groups that focus on a common theme, organocatalysis. We strive to develop methodologies with a superior total efficiency (such as a low environmental load, energy conservation, yield, selectivity, the number of processes) to synthesize useful substances (such as pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, and functional materials) by sharing and integrating valuable intellectual foundations. Eventually, we intend to create the future vision of manufacturing based on innovative scientific and technological approaches.

In order to conduct intensive researc,h, we introduce three research topics based on organocatalysts - A01: Catalyst Development, A02: Reaction Development, and A03: Synthetic Method Development. We aim to strengthen the research system by publicly soliciting two-year term research projects related to these research topics as well as to firmly establish organocatalysis as an academic discipline by promoting research activities with close collaboration among these research topics. For the publicly solicited research projects, we encourage young researchers to propose creative and ambitious research plans from a fresh perspective. Additionally, we welcome approaches based on the analyses of the catalytic functions and reaction mechanisms using computational chemistry.

[For more information about publicly solicited research projects]
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan) in Japanese

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