Novo Nordisk Foundation - RECRUIT Grant (14 million DKK)

Craig Day received the Novo Nordisk Foundation's RECRUIT starting grant to start his independent career as an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen in the Organic Chemistry Section

Grant summary: The growing global concerns over climate change and sustainable manufacturing underscore the urgent need for innovative technologies to produce commodity materials. A potent strategy to tackle these challenges and diminish our dependence on petroleum-based plastics involves synthesizing materials directly from carbon dioxide and sustainable building blocks. This proposal endeavors to achieve this goal by creating plastics from the direct reaction of CO₂ with renewable feedstock chemicals using sustainably sourced metal catalysts. This technological breakthrough promises to serve as a cost-effective and potent carbon sequestration method, scalable to industrial levels, with significant societal benefits in the sustainable production of commodity materials, thus reducing our reliance on petrochemically derived plastics.