£9 million boost for world-leading UK battery research

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

The Faraday Institution has announced a £9 million investment to expand its application-inspired research programme, with two new projects set to begin in October 2025. This marks a significant step in the UK’s efforts to accelerate battery innovation and manufacturing efficiency, following the Government’s £452 million commitment to the Battery Innovation Programme, part of the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan unveiled in June.

The first of the two projects will, for the first time, focus on the scientific understanding of battery formation, ageing and testing — a crucial stage at the end of the manufacturing process. Known as the FAST project, it aims to develop protocols that reduce manufacturing time and energy consumption in gigafactories, while improving battery performance and consistency.

Professor Emma Kendrick of the University of Birmingham will lead the initiative, working alongside researchers from Warwick, Cambridge, Nottingham and Oxford, as well as four industry partners and UKBIC.

The second project, 3D-CAT, will explore the development of lithium-rich 3-D cathode materials. Led by Dr Robert House at the University of Oxford, with support from University College London and four industry partners, the project seeks to create cathodes that outperform current materials such as LFP and LMFP, without relying on costly or geographically limited precursors. The team will investigate how partial ordering within the crystal lattice of disordered rocksalts can enhance lithium-ion transport and rate performance, with synthesis and validation planned at the AMBIC scale-up facility at CPI. Both projects are expected to run until September 2028, with funding beyond March 2027 to be confirmed in early 2026.

Sarah Jones MP, the former Industry Minister who was moved to the Home Office in the latest Government reshuffle earlier this week, said: “Through our modern Industrial Strategy we are going further than ever before to back industry, with the biggest package of investments ever launched by a British government to turbocharge growth. With this funding we are ensuring we stay at the cutting edge of innovation by backing scale-ups, research and fast-tracking new technologies to market, helping unlock new growth and investment as part of our Plan for Change.”

Unlocking transformative battery discoveries
Professor Martin Freer, CEO of the Faraday Institution, added: “The UK’s sustained investment in research at its world-leading universities is unlocking transformative battery discoveries that, when translated into industry, will drive major advances in performance across multiple sectors. The Government’s long-term commitment ensures that breakthroughs move from the lab to commercial application, fuelling economic growth, and creating high-value jobs for the future.”

The Faraday Institution’s long-term funding also enables the launch of Transformational Challenges — high-impact energy storage initiatives where only conceptual solutions currently exist. The first, UltraStore, is already in its co-creation phase and will target ultra-low cost, long-duration energy storage for the grid. A second challenge, focused on ultra-high energy density batteries for aerospace and defence, is expected to be announced later this year.

Since its inception, the Faraday Institution has convened a research community of over 500 experts from 25 UK universities and 147 industry partners. Its portfolio includes eight other major projects covering battery degradation, modelling, recycling, safety, electrode manufacturing and next-generation chemistries such as lithium-sulphur, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries. Today’s announcement builds on £183 million of previous investment since 2018, reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in battery research and innovation.