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Project acronym:   CSD4NCI

Project type:   Training (international)

Grant agreement No.:   HF-304

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Project is funded by:   CCDC (Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre) (Kembridž, United Kingdom)

Instituions where the research is conducted:

  • University of Belgrade - Faculty of Chemistry (Belgrade, Serbia) – Coordination
  • Prirodno-matematički fakultet u Kragujevcu (Kragujevac, Serbia) – Beneficiary

Project realization is scheduled from December 1, 2025 till May 31, 2026.

Project staff

Principal investigator:   Dušan P. Malenov, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Chemistry (Beograd, Serbia)

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Short description of the project

Noncovalent interactions are very important in many areas, from crystal engineering and materials science, to biological systems and catalysis. In spite of that, they are not appropriately represented in high school and undergraduate level university curriculums in our country (Serbia). Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) is a very powerful tool for studying noncovalent interactions, with a variety of features for many different analyses. However, the usage of CSD is not as extensive as it could be (less than 50% of the available CSD licenses for Serbia are activated), and many of the tools within the very versatile CSD Portfolio have not found its proper use.

To raise awareness of the importance of noncovalent interactions, to spread the usage of CSD Portfolio, and to engage more students in structural science, we would like to create the resources that would guide them through the process of studying noncovalent interactions by using the CSD. With the help of chemical education specialist, these resources would be created for two age groups – undergraduate chemistry students (aged 19-22) and talented high school students (aged 16-18), and one-day workshops would be performed at Faculty of Chemistry in Belgrade and Faculty of Science in Kragujevac in order to adjust and optimize its contents. Within these workshops, we would introduce the participants to different types of noncovalent interactions, give demonstration of using the CSD Portfolio to study them, have practical exercise session, and be given a feedback by the means of short tasks, tests, and questionnaires.

[Graphical project abstract 1]