INSIGHT: Digital future can be grasped across chemistry-related industries

LONDON (ICIS)–We’ve had a glimpse of a digitally enhanced future through the coronavirus crisis.

At the closest to home level, the lucky ones have been able to work remotely, their jobs lending themselves to greater digitisation. Many more items and services have been bought online, with supply chains operating remarkably efficiently through lockdowns.

Chemical and drugs companies have stepped up to develop and manufacture much more rapidly potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccine candidates. In research and development, particularly, digital techniques are offering greatly enhanced efficiencies and new opportunities.

A study conducted last year by the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry asserts that digitisation is a “global ‘megatrend’ impacting society at every level from individuals and

households through to large companies and national systems.” It says that digital technologies have huge potential in the chemistry-using industries.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted this.

Research into coronavirus treatments has been accelerated making use of recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, data analysis modelling and simulation. The enhancements have been put to good use from the lab bench to the manufacturing systems that will be required to produce a COVID-19 vaccine and better treatments at scale.

“The battle against COVID-19 is in its early stages, but innovators have embraced the opportunity to augment their research capabilities by using emerging techniques in the digital space, demonstrating the enormous potential this offers by enabling research to advance orders of magnitude faster than has been previously possible,” said Professor Tom Welton, president elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry on release of the Society’s study on 6 July.

The RSC’s Digital Futures white paper is published at a time of crisis but one also of great opportunity when necessity provides the stimulus for greater invention.

That opportunity should not be squandered.

The RSC says that data sourcing and sharing can enable “better, faster and bigger science”. AI can help in modelling and problem solving across disciplines. Sensing, diagnostics, robotics and automation can all be enhanced, essentially facilitating much more efficient, remote science.

There does need to be a will to grasp these opportunities, however, and make better use of them beyond the crisis.

“It is important we don’t lose the momentum gained by the increasing realisation of the transformative power of data and digital technologies deployed in science R&D, said Deidre Black, Head of Research and Innovation at the RSC. “That requires strategic and targeted investment, which is why we are calling for a national strategy to ensure maximum benefit for society.”

The society says that such a strategy will drive growth by attracting inward investment and the best minds to capture the advantages of these cutting-edge techniques.

The photo shows one of the most advanced automated robot chemists at work in the University of Liverpool’s cooper Group. It is able to perform hundreds of experiments a day.

The Society’s recommendations to government include secure, targeted investment in skills and training; enhanced international collaboration across all scientific disciplines; the attraction of talent; support for data standards and ethical international data sharing; and the integration of digital skills in chemistry in schools and higher education.

Digitisation as trend for chemistry and the chemical industry has been accelerated by the coronavirus crisis and is providing opportunities that must not be lost.

Insight by Nigel Davis