£29m made available to fund six new battery research projects in the UK

The Faraday Battery Challenge is a project that was launched in 2017 and will run through to 2025, with the aim of  researching and developing battery technologie. It has just provided £29m investment to six key battery research projects aimed at delivering commercial impact.

The Challenge is a partnership between Innovate UK, UK Battery Industrialisation Centre and the Faraday Institution and has an overall budget is £541m.

As part of this project, the Faraday Institution recently issued an open call for proposals for new research topics that would complement its core research projects. 62 proposals were submitted and six were chosen to receive funding. The areas of research chosen are:

Extending Battery Life: Led by University of Cambridge and  The University of Warwick, with researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Newcastle, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, Imperial College London and UCL.

Battery Modelling: Led by Imperial College London, with additional researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton and Warwick.

Recycling and Reuse (ReLiB): Led by University of Birmingham, with researchers from the universities of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Leicester, Newcastle and UCL.

Battery Safety (SafeBatt): Led by PUCL, with researchers from the universities of Cambridge, King’s College London, Newcastle, Sheffield and Warwick.

Solid-state Batteries (SOLBAT): Led by University of Oxford, with researchers from Newcastle University and Diamond Light Source.

Lithium-sulfur Batteries (LiSTAR): Led by UCL, with researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Coventry, Cranfield, Imperial College London, Nottingham, Oxford, Southampton and Surrey.

Professor Pam Thomas, CEO, Faraday Institution, said: ‘The Faraday Institution is committed to identifying and investing in the most promising and impactful battery research initiatives. This project refocusing is an important part of that process, and allows us to direct even more effort towards those areas of research that offer the maximum potential of delivering societal, environmental, and commercial impact.’

Business and Trade Minister Nusrat Ghani said: ‘Growing the battery industry is vital to positioning the UK as the best location in the world to manufacture electric vehicles.

‘This funding will help businesses become more innovative and productive, helping to create more skilled, high-wage jobs across the UK, future-proofing our economy and supporting our ambition towards a cleaner, greener future.’