This challenge, part of the UKRI Challenge Fund, is investing in research and innovation to develop more efficient, cost-effective and durable batteries, supporting the UK battery technology sector.
This challenge is investing up to £610 million to further develop a UK battery technology industry that is high tech, high value and high skill.
It aims to develop battery technologies that are:
- cost-effective
- high-performing
- have longer range
- faster charging
- long-lasting
- safe and sustainable
This investment aims to make the UK a science superpower for batteries by supporting the UK’s world-class battery facilities. It is also growing innovative businesses that are developing the battery supply chains.
The challenge comprises three core elements:
- business-led innovation, delivered through the Faraday Innovation Programme
- the Faraday Institution, supporting academic-focused research and capability development
- the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), providing manufacturing scale-up and skills development
Business-led innovation
Business-led innovation is being delivered by Innovate UK and focuses on support to help scale up high-tech businesses. It includes the following activities.
Collaborative research and development programme
The Faraday Battery Challenge Innovation programme is supporting UK businesses to push the boundaries of battery innovation and grow the UK battery supply chain.
£130 million of UKRI funding from Innovate UK has been invested for businesses to lead feasibility studies, and collaborative research and development projects across the battery value chain. This investment has been in collaboration with the UK’s world-leading academics and research technology organisations.
These projects have supported over 200 organisations across the UK, with 80% of the projects led by micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Projects funded so far include projects focused on:
- battery lifespan
- battery capacity
- degradation and prediction via digital tools
- charging rates
- process and manufacturing tools
- the reuse, remanufacture and recycling of batteries
Skills
Approximately 270,000 jobs will be needed across the UK battery and electric vehicle (EV) industry by 2040. Ensuring we inspire emerging talent, signpost career changers, and welcome people returning to the job market into the exciting battery sector is vital.
To aid skills development across the UK, the Faraday Battery Challenge has commissioned projects to tackle known skills challenges and provided training through UKBIC. It is collaboratively aligning industry and skills providers across the UK through a skills framework and unlocking training demand in regions linked to industry need.
This work has been carried out through:
- Digitally Enhanced Battery Ubiquitous Training West Midlands (DEBUT WM)
- Electrification Skills Network
- National Battery Training and Skills Academy
- UK Battery Industrialisation Centre
SME credits
Projects funded through this scheme support SME research and development for the scale-up of battery technologies within the UK.
Its aim is to move UK battery innovations from technological potential towards commercial capability and help develop and secure material and manufacturing supply chains for battery technologies in the UK.
Investor Partnerships Programme
Innovate UK launched the Investor Partnerships Programme to provide grant funding for highly innovative SMEs who require equity funding to develop their technology.
Innovate UK has a pool of 150 selected investor partners, such as venture capital funds, corporate investors, business angel groups and social impact investors, from across the UK, Europe and the US.
The programme focuses on specific themes that include net zero, health and wellbeing, critical circular materials and batteries. The Faraday Battery Challenge has invested £2.6 million in this programme.
Investor readiness
Sponsored by the Faraday Battery Challenge and led by Innovate UK Business Connect, this programme has empowered 35 UK-based SMEs in the battery supply chain from 2021 to 2024.
With 90% of participants achieving positive outcomes or raising capital, the 12-week transformative journey includes tailored workshops, one-on-one mentoring, and a live showcase event.
Supported by external experts and investors, participants develop an investor pitch, finish their proposition and have a comprehensive understanding of their intellectual property, finances and future plans. The programme culminates in a live showcase event where the cohort pitch to an audience of investors interested in the battery sector.
Faraday Institution
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for:
- electrochemical energy storage research
- skills development
- market analysis
- early-stage commercialisation
It brings together research scientists and industry partners on projects with commercial potential that will:
- reduce battery cost, weight and volume
- improve performance and reliability
- develop whole-life strategies including recycling and reuse, for both the automotive and wider relevant sectors
Headquartered at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, the Faraday Institution is a registered charity with an independent board of trustees. It represents an investment of over £190 million as part of the Faraday Battery Challenge.
Faraday Institution research
Because of the current level of commercialisation of different technologies and the UK’s need to deliver improvements in electric vehicles over a range of timescales, the Faraday Institution is pursuing a portfolio of projects. The research programme spans 10 major research projects.
Seven of the research projects aim to optimise current generation lithium-ion based batteries where there are still considerable gains to be made and where research breakthroughs could start to be realised in commercial batteries within three to four years. The projects include:
- three projects building core knowledge, understanding, capability in battery degradation, modelling and safety
- two projects focusing on processing in electrode manufacturing and recycling
- two projects focusing on next-generation cathode materials
Three projects are higher risk, higher reward, and could facilitate the long-term commercialisation of next-generation battery technology. This sector still requires considerable research in the areas of materials discovery and optimisation in solid-state, sodium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries.
This large-scale research programme is multidisciplinary, highly collaborative, and draws together the best of UK university research groups and industrial partners. Its research community consists of more than 500 researchers from 25 UK universities and over 140 industry partners.
The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC)
This £204 million national facility provides manufacturing scale-up and skills for the battery sector.
The purpose-built facility is where businesses develop their battery manufacturing processes at the scale they need to move to industrial production, and where those working in the industry can develop new skills by working on the production line, alongside UKBIC’s specialist teams.
Opened in July 2021, the Coventry-based facility can be accessed by organisations with existing or new battery technology, or companies looking at entering the industry. UKBIC doesn’t retain customer intellectual property.
New developments at UKBIC
UKBIC’s Flexible Pilot Line will bridge the gap between the facility’s existing Industrial Scale-up Line and smaller, kilogramme-scale demonstrators available elsewhere.
The new specialist line will provide developers of all shapes and sizes with a more cost-efficient route to market, helping them move from research and development to large-scale production in more manageable steps.
UKBIC’s specialist 800 square metre Clean and Dry Zone will provide a dedicated clean and dry room environment, which can be subdivided for different use cases. That means customers can develop individual processes or machinery under carefully controlled environmental conditions.
The facility also has a new Battery Development Laboratory, which will boost the facility’s capabilities in battery materials characterisation, cell analysis and forensic activities.
UKBIC’s new Cell Cyclers and environmental chambers are housed inside a 135 square metre air-conditioned unit inside the existing formation, ageing and testing area.
Skills and training
UKBIC also delivers specialist skills and training to the wider industry, both at home and abroad. It has given comprehensive training to several European and US battery developers and original equipment manufacturers, as well as research organisations, such as MIRA and the University of Oxford.
Companies can send their employees to work and learn first-hand from the organisation’s team of specialist battery manufacturing trainers. It also offers an ‘Introduction to Battery Manufacturing Process’ training course to non-specialists, which has been attended by industry luminaries Roger Atkins and Quentin Wilson.
Training courses include. among others:
- introduction to electrode processes
- introduction to cell assembly
- introduction to formation
- ageing and testing processes
- substance awareness
- clean and dry rooms in battery manufacturing
- fundamentals of sustainable manufacturing processes