{"id":"https://openalex.org/G6184461456","display_name":"Collisional excitation of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium","description":"Molecules are ubiquitous in the universe and can be used to gain insights into the composition and evolution of stars and galaxies. Among these, about one third are composed of six atoms or more and are termed \u201corganic\u201d as they contain at least one carbon atom. The presence of these molecules in space demonstrates that a complex chemistry occurs even at low temperatures and densities, and their study can inform us about the conditions that prevailed when the solar system formed. Since many of these molecules are precursors to the formation of biological molecules, they could also give us insights about the emergence of life.A major bottleneck of models developed to determine the abundance of these molecules arises from the lack of information on the collisional excitation of molecules, in particular for molecules that consist of more than five atoms. The main objective of this project is to develop and use methods to compute rate coefficients for the ro-vibrational excitation of organic molecules by collisions with helium atoms or hydrogen molecules in the interstellar medium based on ab initio potential energy surfaces. This will lead to an improved knowledge of the abundance of organic molecules in space as well as to a better understanding of gas-phase processes.","funder_award_id":"C14/22/082","funder":{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320327336","display_name":"Vlaamse regering","doi":"10.13039/501100011878"},"funded_outputs":["https://openalex.org/W4401375386","https://openalex.org/W4413520622","https://openalex.org/W7168801770"],"funded_outputs_count":3,"parent_awards":[],"sub_awards":[],"sub_awards_count":0,"amount":null,"currency":null,"amount_usd":null,"amount_usd_basis":null,"recipients":[],"recipient_countries":[],"recipient_regions":[],"research_scope":{"is_research":true,"basis":"funder_default","tier":1},"funding_type":"grant","funder_scheme":"BOF - projects","start_date":"2022-10-01","end_date":"2026-09-30","start_year":2022,"end_year":2026,"landing_page_url":"https://researchportal.be/en/project/8a2673fe-e1d7-46a3-b5ad-ea77a3cf218b","doi":null,"provenance":"vlaamse_regering_fris","lead_investigator":{"given_name":"J\u00e9r\u00f4me","family_name":"Loreau","orcid":null,"role_start":null,"affiliation":{"name":"KULeuven","country":"BE","ids":null}},"co_lead_investigator":null,"investigators":null,"works_api_url":"https://api.openalex.org/works?filter=awards.id:G6184461456","primary_topic":null,"topics":null,"institution_awarded":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I99464096","display_name":"KU Leuven","ror":"https://ror.org/05f950310","country_code":"BE","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I99464096"]}],"updated_date":"2026-10-16T03:01:01.000Z","created_date":"2026-07-13T05:00:03.000Z"}