UCTREST

University Center for Tautomeric Research and Education in Science and Technology (UCTREST) is an interdisciplinary center of high level fundamental and applied research and training in the proton transfer related hi-tech materials and process, tautomeric sensors and machinery, tautomeric controlled drug design. It has been created in 2025 as a nationally funded European Research Area Chair (in the frame of project BG16RFPR002-1.016-0001, funded by the Program “Research, Innovation, and Digitization for Smart Transformation” 2021–2027, Ministry of Education and Science) with Professor Liudmil Antonov selected as a Chair Holder.

UCTREST comes to strengthen the traditionally strong focus on the materials science, bioactive compounds and biomedicine at University of Plovdiv and its Faculty of Chemistry. The closer integration between the existing groups and implementation of advanced know-how will bring the investigations on a new level and will increases the scientific and educational capacity of the Faculty and University. In this way we intend to achieve significant improvements in research and innovations capabilities of the University of Plovdiv in the area of its research specialization, producing a clear impact on publication quality and newly acquired knowledge with translational potential.

At the International level, establishing the UCTREST at University of Plovdiv, will help integrate the University and its Faculty of Chemistry with an international network of researchers in tautomerism and proton transfer. Moreover, bearing in mind the ERA Chair holder potential, we expect that UCTREST would play a role of a European hub in this field of research and education in future.