Held in Toronto at MaRS Discovery District and the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus at the University of Toronto, the event brought together 435 participants from nearly 20 countries across academia, industry, and government.

Over four days, the conference featured more than 75 international speakers, over 130 poster presentations, and 11 hands-on workshops. Attendees engaged with a dynamic group of exhibitors, including Beckhoff Automation, Bruker, Opentrons, Electromate Inc., Raise, CERT Systems, Ripple Therapeutics, and Xatoms and sponsors including MaRS, Institute Courtois and IBM.

This year our keynote speakers discussed how accelerated discovery will impact both academic and industry with insights from Mitra Taheri (Johns Hopkins University), James Love (Novo Nordisk), Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli (MIT) and Alán Aspuru-Guzik (University of Toronto, Acceleration Consortium).  

Posters were on display across two days, showcasing research in AI and automation from around the world. The poster prize competition, sponsored once again by Digital Discovery, generated lots of excitement. A panel of judges awarded prizes to:

• 1st place - Florian Boser (PhD student, Universität Münster, Glorious group)
• 2nd place - Xu Chen (PhD student, University of Torono, Lawson group)
• 3rd place - Joy-Lynn Kobti (PhD student, University of Windsor, Vukotic group

“This year’s conference was once again a great opportunity to gather all the different kinds of experts making their mark in the field of accelerated materials discovery,” said Mohamad Moosavi, Chair of the 2025 Accelerate Conference. “The energy, collaboration, and bold ideas shared here show the global momentum behind this emerging field.”

The conference program was designed by this year’s scientific organizing committee: Mohamad Moosavi, Brandon Sutherland, Han Hao, Ekaterina Trushina, Nicola Bell, Seija Takeda, Nichola Pohl, and Pascal Friederich, whose efforts ensured a program filled with cutting-edge research and meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue.

Looking ahead, the momentum continues to build. From June 15–19, 2026, the Accelerate conference will partner with AI4X for what promises to be the largest and most transformative conference yet. Taking place in Singapore, hosted at the Raffles City Convention Centre, the 2026 edition will be co-chaired by Kostya Sergeevich Novoselov of National University of Singapore and Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Director of the Acceleration Consortium. The expanded programming will explore a unified approach to AI, emphasizing its transformative role in shaping the future of chemistry and industry.