REACHi

REACHi, short for Renewable Energy and Advanced Chemistry Initiative, is an international research collaboration established in 2018 to accelerate discovery and deployment of chemical technologies for sustainable energy.

The initiative brings together universities, national laboratories, and industry partners to pursue interdisciplinary projects in catalysis, electrochemistry, materials science, and process engineering, with an emphasis on open data, shared facilities, and standardized methods.

Governance consists of a governing council, a programmatic steering committee, and a central coordination office hosted by a leading university consortium. Funding comes from a mix of government grants, international agencies, and partner contributions.

Key activities include coordinated research programs, high-throughput experimentation, computational screening, and the development of open-access data repositories and reference materials. The initiative operates shared pilot-scale labs and provides training and exchange programs to researchers.

Impact and reception: REACHi has produced peer-reviewed publications, improved data infrastructure, and several early-stage collaborations with industry. It has faced challenges such as coordinating across institutions, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring equitable access to facilities.

See also: high-throughput screening, AI in chemistry, energy storage research.