First-of-its-kind automatic chemistry facility opens at Imperial

The Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions (ROAR) is the first national centre for the study of reactions, focusing on data-centric chemistry. ROAR is the flagship Research Facility for the Dial-a-Molecule Grand Challenge , which aims to make the synthesis of any desired molecule 'as easy as dialling a number'. ROAR will speed up the discovery of new medicines, materials and agricultural chemicals in a cheaper, cleaner and more sustainable way. Professor Mimi Hii ROAR was established with £2.8m in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ( EPSRC ), £1.1m from Imperial, and £774,000 from industry in money and equipment. Launched on 30 January, the Centre is based in the new Molecular Sciences Research Hub at Imperial's White City campus. Finding the right way to synthesise new molecules with desired properties, such as potential medical drugs or novel materials, can take a long time, sometimes years. This is because synthesising molecules can take many complex steps, each of which needs to be optimised by finding the best conditions - such as temperature, pressure and length of time for the reaction.