Battery projects win £23 million of funding

Business secretary Greg Clark has announced £23 million of funding in battery technologies, part of the total £274 million that will be awarded to consortia across the UK through the Faraday Battery Challenge, within the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF)

Winners include:

  • Mining consultancy firm Wardell Armstrong who will work with experts at the Natural History Museum and mining firm Cornish Lithium to lead a new study looking to develop a UK supply of lithium, helping to meet the demand expected from electric vehicles
  • A Jaguar Land Rover-led project to maximise battery performance while maintaining safety
  • A study looking into the use of artificial intelligence in battery manufacture, led by materials technology company Granta Design.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) manages the Faraday Battery Challenge, part of the Industrial Strategy’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge. The Faraday Battery Challenge brings together world-leading academia and businesses to accelerate the research needed to develop the latest electric car battery technologies.

UK Research and Innovation chief executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, said: “The Faraday Battery Challenge brings together the UK’s world-class expertise across research and industry to deliver battery technologies that will power the vehicles of the future. The projects announced today emphasise how this collective expertise is being brought to bear on the biggest challenges facing the development of next-generation electric car batteries, from their power source and performance to safety and manufacturing.”

Further reading

From the New Power archive: Removing the lithium barrier