We recently developed a novel combination of instruments -called the rheo-Raman microscope- that integrates a Raman spectrometer, a rotational rheometer and an optical microscope. This allows multi-modal simultaneous measurements; we can now correlate macroscopic stress, chemical changes, and conformational kinetics in one experiment. We seek to apply this capability to a range of materials including gels, polymers, composites and emulsions to measure kinetic processes that hitherto required separate experiments. We also seek to incorporate additional measurement modalities such as polarization control, UV curing and optical light scattering.