The Faraday Battery Challenge (FBC) aims to:

• ensure the UK automotive sector meets its net zero commitments in the required timescale, by enabling the development and scale-up of sustainable battery technologies
• ensure the UK prospers from a just and fair transition to electrification, by taking action to develop a world class intellectual and physical supply chain for batteries in the UK

The aims of this competition are to:

• support business-led research and development of sustainable propulsion batteries
• support technologies with the potential to enter the automotive market within the next 10 years and, where appropriate, allow for early or cooperative entry into other sectors
• move UK battery innovations from technological potential towards commercial capability
• develop and secure material and manufacturing supply chains for battery technologies in the UK

Technoeconomic research carried out in collaboration with the FBC, indicates that batteries for transport electrification can generally be classified into the following cross sector cell level performance clusters:

• power focused, weight sensitive
• power focused, cost sensitive
• energy focused, cost sensitive
• energy focused, weight and power sensitive

Projects must balance specific technical, market and business requirements for developing and emerging technologies and enable UK competitiveness across the battery value chain.

We are particularly interested in projects that are focused on the following:

• high power and high energy density, where safety can enable high performance applications
• low cost and lower energy density technologies with lower reliance on critical minerals such as Cobalt and Nickel
• technologies enabling high cycle life
• technologies developing sustainable batteries, for example, which improve resource efficiency, reduce energy intensity of processes or increase recyclability
• building and securing the UK supply chain
• development of more efficient and globally competitive manufacturing processes

Your project can achieve these through a combination of innovations in process improvement, cell chemistry, cell-to-pack efficiency and novel design concepts. We expect successful projects to increase productivity, competitiveness and growth for UK businesses.

We want to fund a variety of projects across the propulsion battery value chain and different technologies. We will apply a portfolio approach across the two strands of the competition.

Specific themes

Your project must focus on:

• extraction and processing of raw materials
• development and manufacture of cell materials and components
• design and manufacture of novel cell, module and pack concepts
• end of life and recycling technologies
• development of the UK battery supply chain
• enabling physical and digital technologies which support the design, development, optimisation and deployment of propulsion batteries

Where project activities require:

• an Environmental Permit (England and Wales)
• Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland and Northern Ireland) Permit
• a Waste Management Licence (Scotland and Northern Ireland)
• you to comply with the Waste Battery and Accumulator Regulations (UK)

Projects must provide proof of compliance to the satisfaction of Innovate UK as part of UK Research and Innovation to enable an application to be successful.

This may include (but is not restricted to):

• a valid permit
• a valid licence
• an approved battery treatment operator (ABTO) status details
• an agreed regulatory position statement or definition of waste opinion

by either the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency or Northern Ireland Environment Agency.