The goal of this project was to create a network of outstanding research groups working in heterocyclic chemistry on overlapping topics, e.g. synthesis of heterocyclic compounds useful in medicinal and agricultural applications, heterocycles present in nature or heterocycles in environmental sciences.
This network on heterocyclic chemistry comprises five partners from the Former Soviet Union States (Nesmeyanov's Institute of Organo-Element Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Belarussian State University, Minsk, Belarussia; Belarussian State University of Technology, Minsk, Belarussia; Kiev Taras Shevchenko University, Kiev, Ukraine; Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry, Novosibirsk, Russia) and four partners from the European Community (University of Gent, Belgium; University of Innsbruck, Austria; Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; University of Catania, Italy). The network was active in three main domains of heterocyclic research, devoted to physiologically active compounds, useful as agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. The first area focused on the development of new syntheses of azaheterocyclic and oxaheterocyclic compounds with emphasis to ring transformations. The second topic comprised the synthesis of natural products (alkaloids, flavanoids, terpenes, ...) and their analogues while the third research item concentrated on the synthesis of morphine-like compounds. This network provided the necessary means for participation to symposia, research meetings, international exchange and extensive scientific collaboration between East and West. The successful collaboration between the nine partners culminated in a large number of scientific publications in international journals. It proved that with a limited budget, a distinguished continuation of researching the FSU states could be achieved.