Seven universities to form the Faraday Battery Institute

The universities forming the new Faraday Battery Institute, announced by the government in July (see Energy World September 2017), have been named. A consortium of the University of Southampton, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick will form the new Institute, a £65mn research body responsible for building the UK’s status as a global leader in battery research and technology.

The Institute will bring together expertise and insight from its seven founding partner universities, industry partners and other academic institutions to accelerate fundamental research to develop battery technologies. With £65mn of funding through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Institute will invest an initial £14mn to set up a headquarters.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark confirmed in July that the government would be making an investment of £246mn, over four years in the Faraday Research Challenge, to ensure the UK builds on its strengths and leads the world in the design, development and manufacture of electric batteries. The Challenge is divided into three streams – research, innovation and scale-up.