Many projects to be undertaken by CPACT will concern specific research in process analysis, data interpretation or control engineering. As part of the assessment procedure, model processes are being adopted to allow continuity in the evaluation of new procedures. Industrially recommended batch and continuous reaction schemes are used, typical of many chemical and pharmaceutical processes. Quality and optimisation criteria are defined to reflect the complexity of processes operated by several companies.

Assessments are made on the basis of how well the new procedures meet prescribed quality and optimisation criteria. This involves evaluation of, for example, the ability to generate the necessary data, hardware robustness issues (including the process interface) and method development complexity and time.