The PhD course offered by the Graduate School C₁-Chemistry in Resource and Energy Management is a three year course program. Students are required to participate in several interdisciplinary lectures/seminars, which will broaden their general understanding concerning topics around C₁-molecules with respect to chemistry, physics, and biology. This knowledge will be extended to economics and political factors related to these compounds. The students are required to write a Research Proposal covering their envisaged study, which is then defended in front of an Advisory Board and which will be presented to the other students. The students conduct their research on an internationally visible level and are encouraged to publish their data in high ranking journals.

Scope. The science of the Graduate School comprises the transformations of one-carbon compounds. This implies the chemistry of oxidation or reduction reactions of either methane (CH₄), methanol (CH₂OH), formic acid (HCOOH) or carbon oxides. Within this framework the focus lies on the efficient storage of these compounds, the fixation of carbon dioxide and the formation of methane from biomass.