Materials are at the centre of nearly all the world’s major challenges, from pandemics and climate change to plastic pollution. New materials are required for higher-efficiency renewable energy and energy storage technologies, reusable and biodegradable materials, and to replace critical materials in limited supply or subject to supply disruptions.
For example, advanced materials represent up to 50% of the manufacturing cost of clean energy technology, and this is expected to increase to 80% in the near future. Realizing these technological solutions requires the discovery of novel advanced materials that are more efficient, longer lasting, less expensive, and more environmentally-friendly. As a foundational technology, self-driving labs can be applied to a wide range of areas that are critical to our socio-economic well-being and the planet.
Clear parallels exist between the high cost and long timelines of materials development to genome sequencing prior to the advent of the Human Genome Project. New sequencing technologies led to the exponential decrease in the cost and time required to decode the genomes of living organisms. These developments revolutionized biology, created the discipline of genomics, and led to the explosion of the biotech industry.
