Cambridge researchers contribute to AI Materials Foundry

The Foundry brings together high-quality data, advanced computing, experimental laboratories and scientific expertise to support end-to-end materials discovery, from AI-driven design and simulation through to experimental validation.

The collaboration aims to help address the materials bottleneck that is limiting innovation across sectors including semiconductors, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

The initiative includes more than 45 members across academia, industry and research, including NVIDIA, Meta Platforms and the Henry Royce Institute, the UK's national institute for advanced materials research and innovation, of which the University of Cambridge is a founding partner.

Cambridge-based founding members include the University and the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, highlighting the area's strengths in artificial intelligence, materials science, scientific data and experimental research.

Researchers from Cambridge's Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy are contributing expertise in high-throughput experimentation and advanced characterisation. Led by Dr Shijing Sun, the team is developing robotic platforms that connect materials design with automated synthesis, characterisation and rapid experimental validation.

"The Foundry provides an exciting opportunity to close the loop between AI and experiments, and for academic and industry researchers to work closely together to accelerate the discovery of technologically relevant materials," said Sun.

"If we don't make progress fast, the next 50 years of industrial progress will be constrained by a single challenge: the world needs materials that don't yet exist," said Dr Chad Edwards, CEO and Co-Founder of CuspAI. "That's what we're on a mission to solve - combining frontier agentic AI with deep domain expertise, exclusive data access and close customer partnerships. We're delighted to be joined by more than 45 leaders in their fields to advance materials discovery."

In addition to her work with the AI Materials Foundry, Sun has recently secured funding from the Alchemy Frontier Fund for a project that will use generative AI to identify new materials that can be tested.

Working with Professor Aron Walsh from Imperial College London, who is also Chief Scientific Officer of CuspAI, Sun's project addresses a key limitation in current materials discovery, where most generative AI models are evaluated only using computer simulations. This means many predicted materials are never tested in the laboratory, limiting progress towards identifying materials that are both high-performing and practically synthesisable.

To address this, the team will connect AI models with experimental work, allowing results from the lab to directly inform and improve future predictions and helping to focus effort on materials that are more likely to be successfully realised.