Putting a (Better) Brain in the Mobile Robotic Chemist

About the Project

The overall goal of this project, co-funded by a financial gift from Google, is to create a delocalised global ‘Hive Mind’ that directs autonomous laboratory robots to discover engineered porous materials for atmospheric CO2 capture. We will fuse human insight and AI agents with experimental and computational data streams in real-time, closed-loop robotic experiments to build a new paradigm for tackling complex societal challenges. This studentship will focus on the development of “chemically-aware” agentic AI methodology that can orchestrate autonomous discovery, acting as the ‘brain’ for the robot chemist.

About this opportunity

The threat of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels is well documented. Our goal is to create a delocalised global ‘Hive Mind’ that directs autonomous laboratory robots to discover engineered porous materials for atmospheric CO2 capture (a.k.a. DAC) using multiple data modalities. We will fuse human insight and AI agents with experimental and computational data streams in real-time, closed-loop robotic experiments to build a new paradigm for tackling complex societal challenges beyond DAC. In a strategic project co-funded by Google, we are proposing to fuse real-time experimental data from AI-powered laboratory robots with global, crowdsourced human expertise, AI agents, and computational predictions to create a unified, hybrid intelligence—a Hive Mind—powered by these four data modalities. We believe this will be necessary because of the exceptionally difficult scale-up challenges for DAC materials, which will defeat ‘brute force’ robotic strategies, human knowledge, AI agents, or large-scale computation used in isolation. It will also demonstrate a new approach to global cooperative research that is relevant to problems beyond DAC.

You will work in a unique interdisciplinary research environment since our team covers all the sub-areas required to tackle this challenge, including porous materials for CO2 capture (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2025, 147, 23160), autonomous mobile robotic chemists (Nature, 2020, 583, 237; Nature, 2024, 635, 890), machine reasoning using LLMs (IJCAI, 2025, 4967), and ‘human-in-the-loop’ approaches (IJCAI, 2024, 3881).

The student will develop an agentic AI framework – essentially the ‘brain’ for this Hive Mind approach, which will autonomously and adaptively accommodate feedback from multiple data modalities towards a more accelerated search for porous materials. In addition to the overall framework the student will further develop novel DAC-specific AI discovery tools to be used ad hoc by the agentic framework to facilitate faster and better discoveries.

This project will be supervised by Prof Andrew Cooper FRS (Department of Chemistry), Prof. Katie Atkinson (Department of Computer Science and Informatics), Dr Xenofon Evangelopoulos (Department of Chemistry), and Dr Gabriella Pizzuto (Department of Computer Science and Informatics & Department of Chemistry). The supervisory team combines experts in artificial intelligence (Prof. Atkinson and Dr Evangelopoulos), automation for materials discovery (Prof Cooper), and robotics (Dr Pizzuto).

Essentially all the hardware tools required for this project have already been built within the group (synthesis robots, fast screening for CO2 sorption, etc.). The day-one challenge will be the development of a ‘discovery AI tool’ that intelligently integrates them with machine reasoning (e.g., from LLMs) and a panel of human experts’ feedback. This studentship will focus specifically on the AI framework for coordinating and directing the experiments.

This project is expected to start in October 2026 and is offered under the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital and Automated Materials Chemistry based in the Materials Innovation Factory at the University of Liverpool, the largest industry-academia colocation in UK physical science. The successful candidate will benefit from training in robotic, digital, chemical and physical thinking, which they will apply in their domain-specific research in materials design, discovery and processing. PhD training has been developed with 35 industrial partners and is designed to generate flexible, employable, enterprising researchers who can communicate across domains.

Candidates will have, or be due to obtain, a Master’s Degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Maths, Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or related disciplines Exceptional candidates with a First Class undergraduate degree or equivalent in an appropriate field will also be considered.

The minimum English Language requirements for international candidates is IELTS 6.5 overall (with no band below 5.5) or equivalent. Find out more about English language requirements.

We strongly encourage candidates to get in touch with the supervisory team to get a better idea of the project before making a formal application online. Any informal enquiries about the project can be directed to Xenofon Evangelopoulos –Xenofon.Evangelopoulos@liverpool.ac.uk.

Review our CDT guide on “How to Apply” carefully as it may differ from a standard application process. Finally, register and apply online. You'll receive an email acknowledgment once you've submitted your application. We'll be in touch with further details about what happens next.

We will close the application once a suitable candidate is found hence early application is advised. We will interview on a rolling basis and fill the position on a first come, first served principle. Please ensure you include the project title and reference number CCPR173 when applying and indicate the subject area as Chemistry.

Funding Notes

The EPSRC DAMC CDT Studentship will cover full home tuition fees and a maintenance grant for 4 years starting at the UKRI minimum (for the 2025-26 academic year this was £5,006 pa tuition fees and £20,780 pa maintenance grant; rates for 2026-27 academic year TBC). The Studentship also comes with a Research Training Support Grant to fund consumables, conference attendance, etc.

Studentships are available to any prospective student wishing to apply including both home and international students. While EPSRC funding will not cover international fees, a limited number of scholarships to meet the fee difference will be available to support outstanding international students.

If you have a disability you may be entitled to a Disabled Students’ Allowance on top of your studentship to help cover the costs of any additional support that a person studying for a doctorate might need as a result.