The papers are very extensive though there are some lacunae, probably attributable to Chain's many changes of workplace. The early biographical period is sparsely documented, there are sporadic gaps in the correspondence files, and there is no original documentation of the penicillin research at Oxford (although there are many historical accounts and much correspondence about the history of penicillin). The surviving biographical material provides documentation of the arrangements for Chain to live and work in Britain, later honours and awards and his musical interests, and family correspondence, photographs and press-cuttings. There are very substantial records of his later career at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and Imperial College, London, including his continuing contributions to biochemical problems such as carbohydrate metabolism, ergot alkaloids, edible proteins and aeration studies. The Imperial College material also contains records of the creation, administration, finance and architectural design of the Biochemistry Department, and developments in the Department after Chain's statutory retirement in 1973. Additional information about Chain's research is available in the documentation of his very extensive consultancy agreements and collaborative work with industrial firms such as Astra, Beechams and Rank Hovis McDougall, and records relating to government, grant-giving and charitable bodies such as the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research Campaign and Medical Research Council which contributed to the funding of his research. There is much material on Chain's lectures, addresses and broadcasts, and on his extensive travel on visits and conferences, which includes a substantial number of unpublished talks.

An exceptional feature of the Chain papers is the documentation of the large number of Israel and Jewish organisations with which he was associated, especially the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he was a governor for many years and had at one time considered taking up an appointment.

Finance records of Imperial College, including College accounts, 1911-1960; regulations, 1986, 1992; correspondence of the College auditor, 1909-1926; Internal auditor's reports, 1977-1979, and information leaflet, 1992;
papers relating to college appeals, comprising Appeal Committee papers, 1919-1921; Botany Research Appeal papers, 1920; Centenary Appeal brochures and reports, 1945-1954; Roderic Hill Memorial leaflet and appeal correspondence, 1954-1957; 1969 Appeal correspondence, papers, press releases, and minutes, 1965-1972; Queen's Gate Trust minutes, 1969-1970;
papers relating to donations to the college, including correspondence, 1908-1967; ledger of donors, 1907-1938; correspondence relating to donations from Charles Hawksley, 1908-1914; Goldsmiths' Company, 1934; Bryson Mulberry bequest, 1949-1952; Gregory bequest, 1961-1979; Frank Merricks Associates fund, 1936-1952; Tanner fund, 1960-1966; Jackson fund, 1968-1974; Armstrong Memorial Trust, 1952-1968; correspondence and minutes relating to the Hilary Bauermann bequest, 1933-1978;
records relating to departmental finance, including finance office log book, 1945-1956; correspondence relating to equipment grants, 1968-1970; suspense accounts, 1968-1976; special pensions, notably the Judd fund, 1935-1944;
papers relating to research and development, including university and industry liason correspondence, 1966-1970; report on university research and its commercial exploitation, 1969-1970; conference proceedings, 1983;
papers relating to Imperial College companies, notably Impel annual reports, 1988-1990; Imperial Biotechnology minutes and reports, 1982-1989; Imperial College Consultants Limited, 1991;
correspondence relating to research grants, 1968-1971; outside income, 1977-1978; report of the working party on patents, 1979 (GP);
City and Guilds College ledgers, 1913-1953 (GQ).

Records relating to Interdisciplinary Centres and Courses of Imperial College, 1953-1992, including Acoustic and Vibration Science course brochures, undated; proposed Centre for Economic Policy Studies, [1980] (KO);
papers of the Robotics and Automated Systems Centre, comprising correspondence on the establishment of the centre, 1981-1982; course leaflets, press cuttings, 1984 (KOA); papers relating to the Centre for Composite Materials, including course leaflets, press cuttings, annual report, 1992-1999 (KOC); papers relating to joint courses with the London School of Economics, including minutes of the Joint Committee, 1953-1967; Rector's correspondence, 1956-1967 (KOE); papers relating to Energy Studies, 1979-1981 (KOF); Geotechnical Engineering courses leaflets, 1982-1984 (KOG); papers relating to the Centre for Remote Sensing, including correspondence, 1981; journal, 1981-1984; newsletters, 1981-1984; press cuttings (KOR); papers relating to Science of Materials research and postgraduate courses, including research reports, 1963-1968 (KOS); papers relating to the Centre for Environmental Technology, including course brochures, 1976-1993; annual reports, 1978-1986; research reviews, 1979-1990; newletters, 1977-1987; Rectors' correspondence, 1974-1982; working party papers, 1974-1975 (KOT).

A small collection of papers of Sir Arthur George Tansley, mainly related to the formation of organisations, in the period 1918-1921, that aimed to promote pure and applied scientific research. The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to Tansley's involvement in the Scientific Research Association. The Scientific Research Association's papers include rules, promotional leaflets and circulars, financial material and a relatively large amount of correspondence. A smaller amount of material survives for the National Union of Scientific Workers including rule booklets, membership lists, reports from meetings, agenda and promotional leaflets and circulars. Only a few items are preserved in this collection for the Federation of Technical and Scientific Associations and the Cambridge Research Group. The published articles and reports at AT/5 mainly concern issues related to the funding, support and the general state of scientific research. As a whole the collection reveals many problems faced by those who wished to organise research work after the first world war, such as the problem of rival organisations created to promote research whose aims overlapped, and disagreements over how and whether research could be organised. For example a letter from the Royal Society to the Scientific Research Association commented that 'lines of development' were 'discovered not by councils or committees but by the instinct of individuals, and the less this is trammelled by organization the better' (AT/2/6/1/42). The article 'Research and Organisation' at AT/2/3/15 was written in an attempt to answer such criticisms by arguing that research could be organised. Other issues also surface in the correspondence of the Scientific Research Association. For example one letter opposed support for any scheme founded on government funding as 'government endowment will, in the long run, corrupt Science...' (AT/2/6/2/17). There were also disagreements as to whether emphasis should be laid upon 'the promotion of scientific research' or 'the economic interest' of research workers which seems to have contributed to a division between the National Union of Scientific Workers and the Scientific Research Association (AT/2/4/3).