The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Science at Scale initiative provides three grants of $6 million over three years to develop new AI approaches in genomics, quantum materials discovery and geothermal energy. The winning teams are composed of UC faculty across a wide range of disciplines, representing nearly every UC campus. This research is funded by fee income the university receives for managing the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. 

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is accelerating both the opportunities for, and threats to, the United States’ longstanding economic leadership. To help keep America in the lead, the University of California is scaling up its commitments in critical emerging areas of scientific research, such as AI, and moving forward with unprecedented speed to fund targeted research that fosters innovation, said Theresa Maldonado, UC Vice President of Research & Innovation.

This special initiative brings together the unmatched academic expertise of UC faculty, world-class scientific talent and capabilities at our national labs, and the strategic leadership within our system to accelerate the scale, reach and impact of AI-powered scientific discovery research that benefits the nation, said June Yu, Vice President of UC National Laboratories.

The AI Science at Scale initiative represents an evolution of this model for creating strategic, impactful and timely research and educational partnerships at scale to further the missions of the Department of Energy and the university, leveraging the domain experts and scientific leadership at the campuses and the national labs. Winning projects were selected from a competitive pool of 27 applications, representing nearly 250 UC faculty.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-awards-18-million-scale-ambition-and-impact-ai-science