UK Battery Industrialisation Centre SME Credit Round 1

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Faraday Battery Challenge to invest up to £1.5 million in innovation scale-up projects.

The aim of this competition is to:

• support an SME’s research and development for the scale-up of battery technologies within the UK
• support an SME to access the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) and demonstrate technologies at suitable scales to customers
• increase engagement with UKBIC
• move UK battery innovations from technological potential towards commercial capability
• develop and secure material and manufacturing supply chains for battery technologies in the UK

Funding support will be offered for labour, travel and subsistence, overheads and subcontracting only. SMEs will be able to access UKBIC’s giga-scale facilities for:

• complete cell development project iterations, for example electrode through cells, includes mixing and coating, calendering and slitting, up to cell assembly, formation and ageing
• proving electrodes at scale, for example electrode only, includes mixing and coating, calendering and slitting

Your proposal must demonstrate that you have developed or proven your innovation to a technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or above.

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have total costs of between £100,000 and £1.1 million
• start by 1 September 2023
• end by 31 August 2024
• last up to 12 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Eligible costs for this grant funding include:

• labour
• travel and subsistence
• subcontracting
• overheads

Note that all material costs are ineligible in this competition.

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). An SME can only submit one application.

The majority of the costs for this grant funding must be subcontracting, of which UKBIC is the only eligible subcontractor for this competition. All other subcontractor costs will be deemed ineligible, and no other subcontractors will be accepted.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to:

• support an SME’s research and development for the scale-up of battery technologies within the UK
• support an SME to access the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) and demonstrate technologies at suitable scales to customers
• increase engagement with UKBIC
• move UK battery innovations from technological potential towards commercial capability
• develop and secure material and manufacturing supply chains for battery technologies in the UK

Your proposal must demonstrate that you have developed or proven your innovation to a technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or above.

Your proposal must clearly demonstrate:

• the current maturity of your product or innovation including scale, yield and quality
• the work done to date to validate and prove your technology at its current level of maturity
• that your product or innovation is appropriate for, and compatible with the giga-scale pilot-line production facilities at UKBIC, for example, material and scale compatibility
• how you intend to use the UKBIC giga-scale pilot-line facilities
• the availability of materials and consumables for the project
• the nature of the outputs expected from the project
• if applicable, the volume of product expected at the end of the project
• how you will validate product performance
• how the project will accelerate your route to market
• how you will engage with customers during and following the project
• how the project outputs and outcomes will facilitate customer engagement

UKBIC operates an advanced and high throughput but conventional Li-ion process line. This means that not all materials or processes will be compatible. Solid State processes are not viable on the existing line at this stage.

Specific themes

Your project is expected to help build and secure the UK supply chain for battery technologies.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• complete electrode and cell manufacturing processes
• electrode manufacturing processes at scale
• new electrode formulations at scale, including those utilising alternative solvents, line compatibility to be confirmed dependent on specific solvent and material
• trial novel mixing, coating, slitting and calendering, line-side and online gauging, measurement and visions systems

You can also focus on alternative materials or processes that will yield manufacturing energy reduction at scale, for example:

• materials or processes. not equipment or monitoring, that reduce the need for very dry electrode handling environment
• reduced electrode drying energy whilst maintaining electrode performance and characteristics

This competition will only fund experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

We are not funding projects that:

• are focused on module and pack
• are cells assembly, formation and testing without the electrode stage
• are non compatible materials, for example Li S
• are non compatible solvents, for example saline or solvents with a low flash point
• are non compatible cell formats, for example 46xx, 18650 cylindrical cells and prismatic cells
• are solid state battery processes
• use technology which has not been proven at least TRL 5

An online briefing event was held on 16th February: click here to watch the recording.