£211 million funding for battery research and development

The government has announced £211 million for battery research and innovation, which will be delivered through the Faraday Battery Challenge.

The Faraday Battery Challenge began in 2017 and supports world-class scientific technology development and manufacturing scale-up capability for batteries in the UK. It helps to seize on opportunities for private investment and economic growth in industries where powerful, fast charging batteries will be essential – such as domestic energy storage and electric vehicles.

The funding will be delivered between 2022 and 2025 by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) with support from the Faraday Institution, Innovate UK and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC).

It will help the sector deliver 100,000 jobs in battery gigafactories and the battery supply chain by 2040. Supporting the scale-up of these technologies and unlocking further private investment supports the sustainable growth of the economy, which will boost tax revenues and put public services on a more secure footing for the longer term, helping improve life for people across the UK.

The Faraday Battery Challenge combines research and capability development to reduce battery weight and cost, increase energy and power, and ensure reliability and recyclability, with collaborative business-led innovation in the UK battery sector, development of the wider network and skills needed to manufacture batteries through Innovate UK. It also includes manufacturing scale-up & skills development at the UKBIC the national battery manufacturing development facility.

The Challenge has supported over 140 organisations working across the UK, attracting over £400 million in further private sector investment. It has enabled the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent battery research body, to unite 500 researchers across more than 25 universities to improve current and develop future battery technologies.

^{Image shows Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and UKBIC Managing Director Jeff Pratt inspect batteries being built.}