The international review was co-ordinated by the Royal Society of Chemistry on behalf of EPSRC and took place in 2002.

As part of the review exercise, the international panel visited nine chemistry departments and met with key industrialists, representatives from the CRYSTAL Faraday partnership, the Green Chemistry Network, the Home Office and the Forensic Science Service. The views of UK chemistry departments and of leading chemists from outside the UK were also sought.  In addition, the review panel received comprehensive background data such as information on the environment for research, bibliometrics, the results of a Royal Society of Chemistry survey of spin-off companies from UK chemistry departments and information on the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.

The panel was chaired by Professor George Whitesides (Harvard University). Professor Whitesides presented the report to the community on 27 January 2003.

EPSRC has developed two action plans to explain how we will be taking forward the issues and recommendations identified in the report from the review panel