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911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ will co-lead two landmark research programmes with partners in Singapore to harness artificial intelligence to accelerate chemistry discovery and software reliability.

Together, the programmes are worth nearly S$20 million in investment and will be at the forefront of global AI research.

The programmes are both funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and will be hosted by 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore – the university’s research and innovation hub in Singapore, based at NRF’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE). The Singapore government’s AI for Science initiative, led by NRF, supports Singapore’s National AI Strategy and focuses on the development and adoption of AI methods and tools that enhance research productivity and advance scientific discovery. 

, Academic Director of 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore, said: “AI is transforming the landscape of scientific research, opening up new opportunities in discovery and innovation. These two major grants illustrate how AI can accelerate breakthroughs –from identifying novel chemical catalysts to improving the reliability of scientific software – with benefits that extend across scientific domains. 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore offers a unique platform for UK and Singaporean researchers to join forces in tackling pressing global challenges, demonstrating the strength and impact of international scientific partnerships.”

Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, executive director of the academic research unit at the National Research Foundation, Singapore, said: “The solutions that we create in our labs will have profound implications, not just for Singapore, but for the globe.” 

The grants were announced at the AI4XAccelerate Conference 2026 in Singapore by Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, Permanent Secretary (National Research and Development).

Speeding up catalyst discovery with AI

A team of researchers from 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore will develop a cloud-based AI platform to accelerate the discovery of next-generation catalysts used in industrial processes.

Catalysts are essential for producing everything from clean fuels to medicines, but finding new ones is slow and expensive, often taking decades through traditional trial-and-error approaches.

The S$10 million programme aims to transform the discovery loop by using AI to achieve a 500-fold acceleration in the computational screening of catalyst compositions. This allows for the rapid identification of candidates for sustainable feedstocks like COâ‚‚ and bio-based chemicals, significantly outpacing conventional methods within this specific discovery phase before moving into the wider development lifecycle.

By developing a Surface Science Foundation Model – a comprehensive AI-driven knowledge base of surface structures and interactions – the team will enable rapid prediction of material properties and synthesis conditions, dramatically reducing time and cost.

The five-year programme, called Overcoming the Terascale Design Challenge: Next-Generation Efficient AI for Discoveries in Surface Science and Catalysis, brings together world-leading expertise in computational materials science from 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and A*STAR.

The grant funding will support cutting-edge computational infrastructure, , and collaborative exchanges between London and Singapore. The programme is expected to deliver a cloud-based AI platform for catalyst design, accessible to researchers worldwide.

The programme’s co-leads are 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s Professor Aron Walsh, Professor Mimi Hii, from 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and A*STAR, and Professor Yew-Soon Ong, A*STAR’s Chief AI Scientist.

Pictured: Professor Aron Walsh

, from the Department of Materials at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, said: “Catalysts underpin everything from sustainable fuels to pharmaceuticals, yet their discovery remains slow and expensive. Our goal is to create open-source tools that support the development of adaptive, autonomous AI systems that can navigate this enormous design space and deliver breakthroughs at unprecedented speed.”  

Pictured: Professor Mimi Hii

, from the Department of Chemistry at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, and A*STAR's Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment, said: “This programme will not only transform catalyst discovery by integrating AI and automated experimental tools, but also train the next generation of scientists in digital chemistry and AI-driven research. It’s an exciting step towards a future where discovery is faster, greener, and more accessible to researchers worldwide.”

Pictured: Professor Yew-Soon Ong

Professor Yew-Soon Ong, Chief AI Scientist at A*STAR, said: “We are approaching a meaningful shift in how scientific discovery is conducted. By developing next generation foundation models and agentic AI systems that function as a scientific copilot, capable of learning from data, reasoning across scales, and improving through closed loop interaction with simulations and experiments, this programme aims to expand what is possible in catalysis and surface science. It seeks to deepen our understanding of catalytic mechanisms, accelerate the identification of promising candidates, and support more effective translation of these insights into real world applications.”

Revolutionising software reliability  

An international research team co-led by 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and the National University of Singapore (NUS) will utilise AI to revolutionise software reliability and verification.  

The S$10 million programme will tackle one of the most pressing challenges in computer science: ensuring the correctness and security of software systems in an era increasingly dominated by AI-generated code.

The four-year programme, called AI for Program Reasoning, is led by 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s Professor Cristian Cadar and NUS’ Professor Abhik Roychoudhury, in collaboration with leading experts from Singapore Management University (SMU), MIT and ETH Zurich.

Software plays a critical role in modern society from scientific discovery to critical infrastructure – and errors can have catastrophic consequences, from research retractions to security breaches. As AI systems generate more code, the need for robust verification becomes more vital and urgent.  

This programme will develop next-generation AI technologies for program reasoning, combining symbolic analysis with generative AI to automate both formal and informal reasoning about software.

Professor Abhik Roychoudhury and Professor Cristian Cadar.

, from 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s Department of Computing, said: “Modern infrastructure and technology rely on software, and reliability failures can lead to serious consequences that impact the economy and society. As AI begins to write significant portions of code, we must ensure that this code is not only functional but also safe and secure. Our research will create AI systems that can reason about programs, verify their correctness, and even repair them when necessary.”

Professor Abhik Roychoudhury, from the NUS School of Computing, said: “Applying formal, logic-based methods to prove the correctness of computer systems has been a long-standing ambition. A key difficulty in achieving this goal has been the lack of specifications to prove correctness.  With the rise of AI agents that can combine the reasoning about text as well as code representations - there remains a real possibility of extracting non-trivial specifications which are then proved automatically via proof search automation. The impact of such research would be huge, leading to the validation of widely used software like the Linux kernel.”

The programme will focus on three pillars:

• Democratising program reasoning through AI-generated analysis tools for diverse programming languages and scientific domains.
• Advancing code-focused large language models (LLMs) to move beyond code generation toward structured, verifiable reasoning.
• Automating specification inference and proof construction for large-scale software verification, including critical systems such as the Linux kernel and network protocol implementations.

The team will deliver demonstrators including customised reasoning engines, benchmarks for code verification, and AI agents capable of repairing both code and proofs.  

These innovations will support Singapore’s rapidly growing digital economy and strengthen its position as a global leader in software science.

The funding supports 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s first major research programme with NUS through 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore. 

911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore

911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore is part of a network of international hubs including Ghana, India, and the USA, which are designed to build long-term collaborations with a diverse range of partners and stakeholders. 
911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore sees 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s scientists working closely with university, industry, government, and third-sector partners in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.

The hub launched at NRF’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) in 2024. CREATE is an international research campus and innovation hub that hosts interdisciplinary research centres from top global universities and research institutes, including MIT and ETH Zurich, to work in collaboration with local institutions.

The hub, led by Professor Azra Ghani, builds on 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s longstanding collaborations with partners in the region enabling scientists to rapidly scale new scientific breakthroughs and technology to societal benefit and commercialisation in Southeast Asia.

The new AI programmes are the latest major research programmes to be announced at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore.

The S$20 million investment in research programmes at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore will see a significant scaling of operations including the numbers of research staff based at the hub.

IN-CYPHER was the first NRF-funded 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore research programme, launching with a four-year grant in January 2024 and building on 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s longstanding strategic partnership with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore). In October 2024, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore received a second major NRF research grant for an NTU Singapore partnership programme, this time from the CREATE Thematic Programme in Decarbonisation. 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and HTX (Home Team Science and Technology Agency) of Singapore have recently committed to a partnership in public safety and security research. 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ are also working with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to accelerate the green and digital transition in the maritime industry.      

For the latest news and events from 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Global Singapore, join our . You can also contact the Hub at IGSingapore@imperial.ac.uk. 

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Main image photo credit: NRF Singapore