2024 NSFC Special Program for “AI and Mechanism Integrated Modeling for Typical Low-carbon Chemical New Processes”

2024 NSFC Special Program for “AI and Mechanism Integrated Modeling for Typical Low-carbon Chemical New Processes”
2024年度 国家自然科学基金委员会 “面向典型低碳化工新过程的人工智能与机制融合建模” 专项项目

August 7, 2024

Sponsor:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

About:
The new low-carbon chemical process is an important measure to realize the dual-carbon goal, and its amplification involves the system integration of multiple units, which is a multi-scale and multi-dimensional complex problem. The deep integration of artificial intelligence and chemical process mechanism is expected to break the traditional mode of step-by-step amplification, and realize the breakthrough of cross-scale modeling and rapid amplification. The key challenge is the lack of data and the difficulty of modeling in the scale-up process.

Focusing on typical low-carbon new chemical processes, we will establish the theoretical innovations and key technologies around AI and chemical process amplification, conduct original fundamental research in the fields of fundamental chemical data improvement and cross-scale modeling, and promote the rapid amplification and large-scale application of new chemical processes.

The key scientific questions are:

1. AI Enhancement Methods for Basic Chemical Data.
2. AI Modeling Methods for Chemical Processes Across Scales.
    

For more information, please refer to the official announcement attached.

Funding Area:

• AI + Petrochemical Processes.
  Taking Joule-heat-driven low-carbon catalytic cracking as the main object, focusing on AI-assisted naphtha complex molecular cracking reaction network and model generation, and establishing reaction/separation full-flow computational software integrating AI and mechanism as well as process basic data package.
   
• AI + Microchemical Processes
  Focusing on microchemical electrochemical enhancement of low-carbon processes, with emphasis on research on AI-assisted reliable design of catalysts and electrodes, development of cross-scale AI modeling and enhancement methods for redox reactions in microreactors, and development of basic process data packages.
   
• AI + Green Hydrogen Chemical Process
  Taking the coupled oxidation process of hydrogen production from electrolytic water as the main object, focusing on the research of high-throughput electrode screening and process intelligent evaluation system construction, developing new methods of basic data enhancement, establishing the intelligent mechanism of cross-scale process amplification and enhancement, and developing industrial-level process basic data package.
   
• AI + Pharmaceutical Chemical Processes
  Taking the electrically-driven pharmaceutical chemical preparation process as the main object, focus on the development of machine learning enhancement methods for basic data, the establishment of cross-scale coupling models, the revelation of process amplification laws, and the formation of relevant process basic data packages.

Funding Amount and Period:
NSFC plans to fund four to five projects in total, with a funding amount of 2,300,000 RMB per project. The funding period is four years, from January 1, 2025 – December 31 2028.
 

Eligibility:

• Applicant must be a senior professional title holder and have the experience of conducting basic research projects. Postdoctoral researchers, graduate students who still pursuing degrees and the personnel without host institution are not allowed to apply;
• This project will not count toward the total number of applications at the time of submission, but it will be included from the official receipt until the funding decision by the Natural Science Foundation of China and after project is funded;
• The applicant can only apply for one special program in the same year;

Please refer to the official announcement for more details.

Application:

• Application is processed via the online system. Select "专项项目" (Special Program) for the category of projects to be funded in the application form, select “研究项目"(Research Projects) for the description of subcategories, and fill in "科学部综合研究项目" (Comprehensive Research Projects of the Ministry of Science) for the description of notes. For all project application code 1, select an application code under B08 of the Chemical Science Department according to the requirements of each research direction. Applications with inaccurate or unselected choices will NOT be accepted.
• Please write your proposal in accordance with the "Proposal Outline for Special Programs - Research Projects", and indicate "面向典型低碳化工新过程的人工智能与机制融合建模：XXX (fill in one of the four research directions to be funded)" at the beginning of the proposal.

Important Dates: