A year in review
A look back at 2024 and what’s ahead at the Acceleration Consortium (AC). Based at the University of Toronto, the AC is a global community of academia, government, and industry who are accelerating the discovery of new materials and molecules needed for a sustainable future.
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At the Acceleration Consortium (AC), 2024 has been a year of momentum, thanks in great part to the $200 million grant we received from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF). Since then, we’ve been busy scaling. The AC launched new funding programs to drive research, created opportunities for a more diverse range of researchers and even took our annual Accelerate Conference on the road to the University of British Columbia. As we reflect on a whirlwind year, we are once again reminded about the power of a consortium. Together we are fundamentally changing the way we do science. Thanks to our members from so many backgrounds and disciplines for making this year’s research, training, and translation milestones possible:
Research
Our researchers used self-driving labs to accelerate the discovery of organic lasers and applied LLMs for small molecules. We funded over $1 million in research with our Seed, Moonshot and Translation grants, including projects aimed at discovering materials for biomedical implants and mRNA therapeutics.
To support our research, we added nearly 50 new people to our team, including talented staff scientists, research assistants, and students from a diverse range of disciplines (and we’re still hiring). We also broke ground on the Lash Miller expansion to house state-of-the-art self-driving laboratories that will accelerate the discovery of new materials desperately needed for a sustainable and healthy world.
We announced a new grant for social science and humanities researchers to support interdisciplinary inquiry into the societal impacts of speeding up science, including the ethical, economic and legal consequences. This work is foundational to the AC’s commitment to creating materials that are ethically designed to benefit all people and the planet.
Training
We began offering four online, asynchronous micro-credential courses with U of T’s School of Continuing Studies to make it more accessible for people to join this emerging field of AI for science. Available next year, the final hands-on course will round out a certificate in Autonomous Systems for Discovery.
We launched the AC’s summer undergraduate research program to give 12 students from underrepresented groups firsthand experience in our labs and a chance to showcase research at our Accelerate conference. We also awarded $70k to projects that address barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion in our field.
Days after the government announced a transformative investment in the next generation of research leaders, we hosted government officials in our labs, reinforcing how research helps to drive policy under the shifting landscape of AI.
Translation
We worked with numerous partners to move our technologies out of the lab, including a hackathon with our partner Merck KGaA alongside 120 brilliant minds to co-create new tools, pushing the boundaries of Bayesian optimization to tackle real-world challenges
To keep our community growing, we joined the AI Alliance, a global network co-founded by IBM and Meta to shape the future of open, safe, and responsible AI.
We launched our first spin-out, Intrepid Labs, a startup developing better drug formulations to bring life-saving therapeutics to patients fast.
We took Accelerate west to the University of British Columbia, where we had a record number of abstract submissions. Thanks to the 350+ students, researchers, and professionals across academia, industry and government who helped make it a great success! The countdown is on for our 4th annual conference, taking place August 11 – 14, back home in Toronto.
We want to give a big round of applause to our scientific leadership team members, staff scientists, AC members and grant holders, researchers and everyone else in our growing community who are dedicated to realizing a materially better future. If you want a closer look at our activities this year, check out our impact report.
Wishing everyone all the best for the holiday season and we look forward to a great year ahead!
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