The phrase "a process that started" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe the beginning of a particular process or event, often in a narrative or explanatory context.
Example: "The project is part of a process that started several years ago, aiming to improve community engagement."
Alternatives: "a procedure that began" or "an initiative that commenced".
When PC maker Gateway closed a deal to acquire privately held competitor eMachines earlier this month, it ended a process that started more than a year ago and that might have ended very differently.
Missile defense sites sprang up around the Persian Gulf, continuing a process that started under President Bush.
Ford officials say they have listened to customer feedback in developing the upgrade, a process that started as soon as the system was introduced.
But it is clear that globalisation is not simply a process that started in the last two decades or even the last two centuries.
In the bigger picture, the new deals represent the culmination of a process that started eight years ago when Vermes and Heineman came on board.
The deal would go a long way toward unwinding the business holdings of the Pritzkers, a process that started in 2001.
Most researchers have assumed that the virus enters host cells through fusion between the cell's plasma membrane and the virus's envelope--a process that starts when a virus protein called G latches onto a host receptor called ephrinB2.
The chemistry is complex, and it may be baffling for a jury to hear about a process that starts out involving sugar but ends up lacking it.
"You find in most of the people who apply, this is a process that starts several years in advance," said Cmdr.
Many of the genes for brain development are involved in patterning and building the cortex, a process that starts in the first trimester of fetal life when brain cells, or neurons, are born in a region lining the cerebral cavity.
This is one reason I've never attempted my mother's chicken soup, a process that starts with raw chicken and giblets and eventually involves peeling and cutting a turnip.
