  In this paper we combine two powerful computational techniques, well-tempered
metadynamics and time lagged independent component analysis. The aim is to
develop a new tool for studying rare events and exploring complex free energy
landscapes. Metadynamics is a well-established and widely used enhanced
sampling method whose efficiency depends on an appropriate choice of collective
variables. Often the initial choice is not optimal leading to slow convergence.
However by analyzing the dynamics generated in one such a run with a
time-lagged independent component analysis and the techniques recently
developed in the area of conformational dynamics, we obtain much more efficient
collective variables, that are also better capable of illuminating the physics
of the system. We demonstrate the power of this approach in two paradigmatic
examples.
