Grants and Contributions:

Title:

Accelerating scientific discovery with large language models

Agreement Number:

1015961

Agreement Value:

$130,000.00

Agreement Date:

Mar 22, 2024 - Mar 31, 2026

Description:

Scientific discovery, by nature, is a lengthy and arduous journey largely due to the vastness of its exploratory scope. To illustrate, the design of a 100 amino-acid protein sequence entails the exploration of mind-boggling 20^100 possibilities. Historical approaches to scientific discovery in realms such as protein, molecular, and material design have relied heavily on the artful blend of intuition, experience, and a dash of serendipity. These empirical-driven methods, while valuable, are markedly time-intensive and laden with numerous unsuccessful attempts. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) promised a new velocity in the discovery process. Yet, prior efforts have generally centered on small-scale models with constrained generalizability, resulting in suboptimal outcomes. The emergence of large language models (LLMs), with their remarkable reasoning and generalization prowess, holds the potential to catalyze a seismic shift in this field, thereby dramatically streamlining the scientific discovery journey. The project aims to accelerate scientific discovery with big data. By utilizing the currently popular large foundation models, it will be possible to unleash their generalization capabilities to help researchers significantly shrink the search space. By leveraging AI techniques in the process, it can make the search process more explainable and systematic.

Organization:

National Research Council Canada

Expected Results:

In the short term, anticipated outcomes will be strengthened collaborations across industry, academia, and government to support research excellence. In the medium term, anticipated outcomes will be the development of new and potentially disruptive technologies with collaborators. In the long term, find collaborative solutions to public policy challenges and create stronger innovation systems.

Location:

Waterloo, Ontario, CA N2L 3G1

Reference Number:

172-2023-2024-Q4-1015961

Agreement Type:

Grant

Report Type:

Grants and Contributions

Recipient Business Number:

119260685

Recipient Type:

Academia

Recipient's Legal Name:

University of Waterloo

Federal Riding Name:

Waterloo

Federal Riding Number:

35112

Program:

Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program - Collaborative R&D Initiatives

Program Purpose:

Collaborate on multiparty research and development programs to catalyze transformative, high-risk, high-reward research with the potential for game-changing scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs in priority areas.

NAICS Code:

541710 - R&D in the physical, engineering and life sciences