Announcing New Partnerships to Drive AI Innovation in Materials and Molecule Discovery – collaborations between the Montreal and Toronto research communities

Montreal, Quebec – IVADO and the Acceleration Consortium (AC), along with the Institut Courtois, Mila – Quebec AI Institute and the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), are pleased to announce a series of initiatives to expand and broaden their collaboration in advancing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for scientific discovery, following the successful co-hosted inaugural workshop entitled “Harnessing AI for the Accelerated Discovery of New Materials and Molecules”. The workshop, held on April 16-17 in Montreal, marked the beginning of a strategic partnership based on common scientific goals and shared resources.

AI and robotics are poised to revolutionize the discovery of new molecules and materials by analyzing vast amounts of accumulated data, learning how to spatially search for new compounds, and dramatically accelerating and improving our ability to test candidates in the real world. By harnessing AI and robotics expertise within the concept of self-driving labs, we can expect to have a significant impact on the discovery of drugs, vaccines, or new materials that could have tremendous environmental applications. By their very nature, these research efforts require the collaboration of experts from a wide range of fields, including data science, machine learning, robotics, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics, among others. This cross-disciplinary approach not only enriches the research, but also broadens its potential applications, allowing for more comprehensive solutions to complex problems.

A highlight of the workshop was the focus on multi-institutional collaboration supported by our two CFREF grants: the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium: Self-Driving Labs for Molecular and Materials Discovery and Université de Montréal’s R³AI: Shifting Paradigms for a Robust, Reasoning, and Responsible Artificial Intelligence and its Adoption, led by IVADO.

During this event, IVADO, the Acceleration Consortium, the Institut Courtois, Mila and IRIC had fruitful discussions on the key deliverables and proposed future initiatives that could deepen the collaborations already underway:

• Annual Meetings: Starting this year, IVADO and AC, along with partners Courtois, Mila and IRIC, will hold annual meetings to facilitate ongoing dialogue and project updates, alternating between Montreal and Toronto.
• Academic and student exchanges: IVADO will introduce an academic visitor program to promote exchanges between member institutions. In addition, a streamlined student exchange program will be established between the partners to encourage short-term visits to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Business Development and Innovation: The partners will jointly discuss and share business development strategies to translate academic research into commercial success and will establish open communication platforms between researchers and students.
• Educational Initiatives: IVADO will host the Montreal School in Machine Learning for Drug Discovery from June 12-18, in collaboration with Mila and Valence, emphasizing the educational aspect of their partnership.
• Data and research infrastructure: IVADO and AC, along with partners, will explore the creation of a Canadian data lake for materials discovery that reflects a commitment to creating shared resources that enhance research capabilities across institutions.
• Grant opportunities: The Institut Courtois has launched an Exploratory Grant Competition and IVADO has launched the IVADO Exploratory Grant Program, which could be used to fund promising projects emerging from these collaborations.
• 2024 Accelerate Conference: The Acceleration Consortium’s annual conference, Accelerate, will take place in Vancouver from August 6-9, co-hosted with the University of British Columbia. Participants from this workshop are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts and proposals for satellite workshops, continuing the collaborative momentum.

These initiatives represent a commitment to creating a robust ecosystem that not only fosters innovation, but also cultivates a community of experts capable of leading the way in AI-driven discovery processes.

For further information, please contact:
medias@ivado.ca