  Discovering the low-energy conformations of a molecule is of great interest
to computational chemists, with applications in {\em in silico} materials
design and drug discovery. In this paper, we propose a variable neighbourhood
search heuristic for the conformational search problem. Using the structure of
a molecule, neighbourhoods are chosen to allow for the efficient use of a
binary quadratic optimizer for conformational search. The method is flexible
with respect to the choice of molecular force field and the number of
discretization levels in the search space, and can be further generalized to
take advantage of higher-order binary polynomial optimizers. It is well-suited
for the use of devices such as quantum annealers. After carefully defining
neighbourhoods, the method easily adapts to the size and topology of these
devices, allowing for seamless scaling alongside their future improvements.
