What is Grass Roots?
The remit of ChromSoc is to ‘support chromatography and chromatographers’ and we typically do this through the organisation of symposia, funding of students and industrial chromatographers to attend chromatographic conferences (nationally and internationally) and funding of academic research.
In our Diamond celebration year (2016), the Society wanted to organise something slightly different to help support the next generation of chromatographers. Subsequently we held a four-day fundamental chromatography educational event at Grasmere in the Lake District for post-graduate students and novice chromatographers. We called this our ‘Grass Roots’ educational event. Due to the phenomenal success of this event, we repeated this event at Church Stretton in Shropshire in September 2017.
Education & Networking
These events were delivered by a number of chromatographers from the Society committee with extensive training and industrial experience. Although Grass Roots is primarily an educational event, there were extensive opportunities for networking through a walking social programme. Significant finances were (and continue to be) provided to enable academic students to attend through vendor or Chromatographic Society sponsorship.
The small molecule LC method development course will be of particular relevance to attendees working with pharmaceutical compounds, but the concepts and approaches will be equally relevant to those working in the food, environmental and other industries.
New chromatographic concepts and approaches introduced
The course includes lectures in the usual taught format, but there will be extensive time within the programme for hands-on practical work using in-silico method optimisation software alongside our usual walking and social programme. Financial support to attend is available for UK based PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and lecturers, as well as funding for industrial colleagues working at small and medium sized companies.
We are currently developing more advanced courses which build on the previous fundamental theory events. Grass Roots 7 planning in 2025 is already underway!
Previous events
- Grass Roots 1- 2016: Fundamentals of chromatography – Lake District
- Grass Roots 2- 2017: Fundamentals and practical application of chromatography- Shropshire
- Grass Roots 3- 2018: Fundamentals of reversed-phase method development for small molecules – Lake District
- Grass Roots 4- 2019: Fundamentals of characterisation of biopharmaceuticals using chromatography – Shropshire
- Grass Roots 5- 2022: Fundamentals of HPLC and UPLC- Cumbria
- Grass Roots 6- 2023: Fundamentals of chromatographic method development for small molecules- Cumbria
- Grass Roots 7-2025: Fundamentals of chromatographic method development for oligonucleotide therapeutics- Cumbria
