The University of Toronto has been awarded a $200-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) to revolutionize the speed and impact of scientific discovery through its Acceleration Consortium.
The funding — the largest federal research grant ever awarded to a Canadian university — will support the consortium’s work on “self-driving labs” that combine artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials and molecules in a fraction of the usual time and cost. Applications include everything from life-saving medications and biodegradable plastics to low-carbon cement and renewable energy.
Led by Professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik of the departments of chemistry and computer science, the Acceleration Consortium brings together partners from academia, government and industry who are accelerating the discovery of materials and molecules needed for a sustainable future.
The consortium aims to reduce the time and cost of bringing advanced materials to market, from an average of 20 years and $100 million to as little as one year and $1 million.
“Our goal is to accelerate science,” said Aspuru-Guzik, who is a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “To do that, we realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way.
“We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery.”
The CFREF funding, along with additional support from U of T — which includes an investment of $130 million to expand facilities to house the Acceleration Consortium’s state-of-the-art labs at the Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories building on the St. George campus — will help secure the researchers, spaces and partnerships needed to build a world-leading centre for accelerated materials discovery and innovation.
The funding will also help the consortium rapidly create high quality datasets to better train AI models and validate the model’s predictions in real time. That, in turn, will dramatically accelerate the discovery and development of molecules and materials for a wide range of industries.
Continue reading at U of T News: U of T receives $200-million grant to support Acceleration Consortium's ‘self-driving labs’ research
Leaders and researchers from U of T and Acceleration Consortium spoke with U of T News about the impact the CFREF funding will have on the consortium’s game-changing work and unique model of cross-sector collaboration.
Melanie Woodin
Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science; professor, Department of Cell and Systems Biology
The Acceleration Consortium is already having an impact. Its second annual Accelerate Conference this summer will showcase the latest methods, applications and research in accelerated materials and molecular discovery. But this funding will enable even greater breakthroughs. It will have a transformative impact on our researchers' ability to develop the cost-effective, high-performance, sustainable materials that are needed to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
Alán Aspuru-Guzik
Director, Acceleration Consortium; professor, departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science; Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry; CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence
Our goal is to accelerate science – that’s where our name comes from. To do that, we realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way. We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery – and this grant will help us to take that even further.
We are already emerging leaders in the world of research excellence and we have a plan to keep building on that excellence. We’ve also shown that we’re integrated with communities – including working closely with Indigenous communities – and have innovative plans to teach this technology to future generations.
Florian Shkurti
Assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, U of T Mississauga and the tri-campus graduate Department of Computer Science, UTM Robotics faculty advisor; director of the Robot Vision and Learning Lab; and Vector Institute faculty affiliate
What is unique about the AC is that over the last five years it has built a tightly knit and vibrant community that includes academic and industry researchers, as well as a global team of active and supportive partners in government, industry and entrepreneurial circles. Despite the seemingly disparate areas of expertise, they all work towards a common goal: to accelerate the science of advanced materials discovery in order to benefit society and our planet at large.
Together with my collaborators, Professors Alán Aspuru-Guzik and Animesh Garg, we are working on enabling general-purpose robots to perform as well as chemists in a typical chemistry lab. Having additional funding from the CFREF will help us to pursue more research efforts in enabling robots to visually perceive and autonomously manipulate granular materials, powders, liquids and transparent objects, which traditionally have been extremely challenging. It opens up so many opportunities for robots to be helpful in chemistry labs and work alongside human chemists to augment their capabilities.