The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation. It brings together academics and industry partners on research projects to reduce battery cost, weight, and volume; to improve performance and reliability; and to develop whole-life strategies from mining to recycling to second use. It is envisaged that outputs from this research will have a significant influence on technology for electric vehicles as well as having cross sector benefits for the energy sector and consumer goods.

The Faraday Institution is intending to widen its research scope and activity facilitated through an expansion of the research community and it needs to inform the priorities for its future research.

As a result, the Faraday Institution is inviting proposals from researchers interested in study or seed research projects to develop battery research areas not covered within the current core Faraday Institution research portfolio. This is intended to support a year of future research scoping, the outcomes of which will inform the scope of larger research projects beyond 2022.

These small research projects are not intended to be ‘business as usual’ – they are to be fast-paced, focused projects, delivering transformative results that may lead to a second stage of collaborative research beyond the initial exploratory work. The projects will be expected to lead to application-inspired research to strengthen the UK’s position in electrochemical energy storage research and ultimately make UK industry more competitive.

A total amount of around £1.2M is available for up to twelve awards, dependent on the quality of research proposed and its relevance to the Faraday Institution’s overall mission. Approximately £220k will be allocated to research specifically within scope of Transforming Energy Access in Emerging Economies

Proposed projects should start no later than 1st June 2022 and run for a maximum of up to 12 months. As we are working on an accelerated timeline for these novel projects, it is likely that researchers will need to already be in post or available on a short timescale. Our timetable for the projects may be subject to change dependent on any response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to application, please discuss your proposed scope with the Faraday Institution team directly or join the online briefing meeting on the 31st January at 3pm GMT, with all contact information on page 1 of the call document.

Please read the full call document for guidance before submitting your proposal. Submit using this application form.

Applications should be submitted by 12:00 noon, on Monday 28th February 2022, by returning the completed application documentation to [email protected]