Largest-ever federal university grant awarded for AI and robotics research, as part of $1.4B fund

The Canadian government has unveiled which universities will be receiving a portion of $1.4 billion in research funding, with the single largest sum going to the University of Toronto for its work on artificial intelligence.

The Canadian government unveiled Friday which 11 universities will be receiving a portion of nearly $1.4 billion in funding for research on new technology like artificial intelligence, robotics, carbon capturing and health care.

The funds are being provided through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), which aims to boost research in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Receiving the single largest grant in the program's history is the University of Toronto, which has been granted a total of $199.5 million over seven years.

Ten other schools across the country are also receiving federal funding:

This is the third time this competition for funding has been held, seeing multiple post-secondary schools submit letters of intent on projects they think would revolutionize industries. Universities' pitches are made before an independent committee, which then selects a handful for funding consideration.

The last time the competition occurred was in 2016, when the government rolled out $2.38 billion to 13 schools. Prior to this announcement, the single largest grant was $113 million, given in 2015 to U of T for regenerative medicine.

In the University of Toronto's case, the money will go to its Acceleration Consortium, which will support further research on self-driving labs that combine AI and automation to create new raw materials.