How can artificial intelligence, laboratory automation and autonomous experimentation accelerate the discovery of new materials? This was the question addressed by the AccelMAPs 2026 Training School, which brought together 84 participants from nineteen European countries at Técnico’s Loures Campus.
The Training School AccelMAPs 2026 – Accelerating Energy Materials Development: From Legacy Labs to Material Acceleration Platforms took place from 18 to 21 May at Instituto Superior Técnico’s Loures Campus, within the framework of the EU-funded COST Action EU-MACE (European Materials Acceleration Center for Energy). Over four days, 11 trainers shared their expertise with 73 researchers at different stages of their careers, who had the opportunity to explore emerging methodologies and technologies, from atomistic modelling to advanced materials characterization, which are accelerating research in materials science and engineering for energy technologies.
During the opening session, Sawako Nakamae, Chair of the COST Action EU-MACE, highlighted the role of Material Acceleration Platforms (MAPs) and explained that the school had been designed to demonstrate how tools such as simulation, artificial intelligence, automation and data science can support the transformation of conventional laboratories (legacy labs) into more integrated research environments. ´Our aim is not only to develop MAPs, but also to understand how traditional laboratories can be transformed and integrated into these platforms in order to accelerate energy materials research across Europe`, she said.
Local organisation was coordinated by António Pereira Gonçalves and Sandra Rabaça, researchers at Instituto Superior Técnico’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Sciences (DECN) and members of CeFEMA – Centre for Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials and C²TN – Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, respectively, together with Ana Charas, researcher at the IT – Instituto de Telecomunicações. All are members of the COST Action EU-MACE.
According to António Pereira Gonçalves, initiatives such as AccelMAPs are ´essential for accelerating the development of new materials and sustainable systems`. Ana Charas highlighted the integrated perspective of the technologies that are ´shaping the next generation of smart laboratories`, while Sandra Rabaça stressed that the school helped to make the ´concept of Material Acceleration Platforms` more tangible and to understand the evolution of laboratories towards “more integrated, autonomous and data-driven environments”.
The application of these approaches was also explored by Nuno Barradas and Victoria Corregidor, both researchers at Instituto Superior Técnico’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Sciences and members of C²TN, during a session dedicated to the use of artificial intelligence in the characterisation of materials for energy applications. ´By freeing researchers from more routine tasks, artificial intelligence allows them to devote more time to interpreting results and designing new experiments`, explained Nuno Barradas. Victoria Corregidor also highlighted the potential of these tools to expand the capabilities of ion beam analysis techniques, making it possible to obtain three-dimensional information in a non-destructive way.
The link between academic research and industrial applications was the focus of a presentation by Elena Stefanaki, from European Thermodynamics Limited (United Kingdom), devoted to the potential of thermoelectric materials to recover waste heat from industrial processes and convert it directly into electricity. ´We are talking about a technology capable of transforming a major source of energy waste into an opportunity to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions`, she emphasised.
According to Ole Martin Løvvik, from SINTEF Industry (Norway), the major transformation currently taking place in materials science is the reversal of the traditional role of computational modelling. ´For a long time, modelling was used primarily to explain experimental results. Today, modelling is increasingly driving experimentation by identifying and proposing new materials for experimental validation`, he said. In his view, this paradigm shift is fundamentally redefining the way new materials are discovered.
Maximilian Wolf, from TU Wien and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, led a practical session on laboratory automation, demonstrating how programming, machine learning and advanced data management can make materials development ´faster, more efficient and more systematic`.
In addition to the lectures, the school included the presentation of 30 posters and visits to the Accelerator Laboratory, the Helium Liquefier, IRIS (Ionising Radiation Facility) and the Cryogenics Building, which houses the Mössbauer Spectroscopy, Magnetometry (SQUID and VSM) and Electrical Transport Properties laboratories, fostering exchanges between researchers from different disciplines and countries.
Among the participants were several PhD students from Instituto Superior Técnico and other national and international universities, for whom the school represented an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the potential of these technologies in research. Beatriz Santos, a PhD student in Materials Engineering at Técnico, noted that ´the prospect of carrying out research more rapidly, through automation and the efficient execution of complex tasks, seems both ambitious and realistic`.
Dorien Osmanaj, a PhD student in Materials Science at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Albania), also highlighted the importance of the training in deepening knowledge and strengthening international collaboration networks. ´This approach makes it possible to accelerate the discovery and optimisation of new materials, making research more agile and data-driven`, he said.
By promoting advanced training and international collaboration, the European EU-MACE network aims to consolidate new research methodologies and prepare the scientific community to address the challenges of the energy and technological transitions.