Battery Innovation: Feasibility Studies Round 3

Overview

The Battery Innovation Programme is investing up to £25 million in innovation projects that accelerate the development and commercialisation of advanced battery technologies in the UK.

This competition supports collaborative feasibility studies that can strengthen the UK battery supply chain, improve the UK's competitiveness in the global battery market and demonstrate how battery technologies can meet the needs of sectors adopting electrification.

Projects need to address a clear market demand, tackle relevant industry challenges and demonstrate how the proposed innovation could strengthen UK competitiveness across the battery value chain.

This competition is split into two strands:

• Battery Innovation: Concept Development Round 3
• Battery Innovation: Feasibility Studies Round 3 (this strand)

Scope

The competition aims to:

• accelerate the development and commercialisation of state-of-the-art battery technologies in the UK
• support the growth of the UK battery supply chain and related companies
• enhance the UK’s competitiveness in the global battery market
• demonstrate how battery technologies can meet specific application requirements and drive electrification across diverse sectors

Projects must demonstrate market demand for the chosen sector and application. They must explain how the innovation can address industry challenges, remove barriers and enable UK competitiveness across the battery value chain.

The technology must address at least one of the following outcomes:

• reduced cost, including total cost of ownership
• improved performance
• improved safety
• increased predictability and reliability
• reduced environmental impact
• alignment with relevant standards and regulatory requirements

Proposed solutions can address the entire battery value chain and must consider financial implications, sustainability targets, environmental impact and regulatory policies.

For feasibility studies, applications are encouraged that:

• trial advanced and highly novel battery technologies for the first time
• support the trial and adaptation of existing materials, processes or equipment for application in battery technologies or the battery supply chain
• exploit scientific advances with a focus on product or process commercialisation
• trial novel approaches, tools and methods

Projects can target performance requirements across automotive, aerospace, battery energy storage systems, rail, maritime and defence. Defence innovations must be dual use with clear relevance beyond defence applications.

Applications must clearly demonstrate an understanding of the target sector, industry and market demand across the UK, Europe and globally.

Key themes and topics

Projects can focus on one or more of the following:

Material extraction

Innovations that strengthen sustainable and competitive access to raw materials, including:

• sustainable extraction methods with reduced environmental impact
• improved efficiency, yield or purity of raw materials used in battery chemistries
• substitution, diversification or novel sources of critical minerals
• environmental monitoring, traceability or responsible sourcing technologies
• digital tools for resource mapping, process optimisation or environmental protection
• UK access to advanced materials needed for next-generation cells

Material processing

Advancing processed materials required for high-performance or cost-effective cells, including:

• cathode, anode, electrolyte or separator materials
• scaling processing of active materials for next-generation chemistries, such as solid-state, sodium-ion, LFP, high-nickel and silicon-rich technologies
• improved energy, water or reagent efficiency in material production
• improved material consistency, purity and performance
• digital tools, modelling or automation to improve throughput and quality
• sustainability, recycling feedstocks or circular inputs within materials processing

Cell production

Improving cell manufacturing capability, quality, cost and scalability, including:

• electrode manufacturing, cell assembly and formation processes
• tools, equipment and automation for improved production efficiency
• scale-up from laboratory to pilot line and gigafactory levels
• in-line diagnostics, digital twins and modelling to improve quality and reduce scrap
• reduced energy demand, waste and environmental impact
• industrialisation of new chemistries or formats, including pouch, cylindrical and prismatic cells
• design-for-manufacturing approaches to improve yield and reliability

Module and pack integration, diagnostics and use phase

Enhancing system-level performance, durability, safety and integration, including:

• module and pack design, structural systems or fast assembly techniques
• safety systems, early-warning diagnostics and fault-tolerant designs
• advanced BMS functionality and state-of-health or state-of-charge algorithms
• thermal management technologies, materials, architectures or control systems
• simulation, digital twins and data-driven optimisation
• circularity-ready and end-of-life-friendly design
• application-specific optimisation for automotive, aerospace, maritime, rail, defence or stationary storage

Recycling and circular economy

Strengthening UK capability in end-of-life processing, reuse, recovery and circularity, including:

• dismantling, sorting and safe handling of end-of-life batteries
• improved recovery of critical materials and black mass refining
• integration of recycled materials into upstream production
• reuse, second-life and remanufacturing technologies
• reduced waste and environmental impact across end-of-life systems
• digital tracking, provenance and circular economy systems
• technologies and business models that enable circularity at scale

Projects will not be funded if they are:

• not aligned with the Industrial Strategy
• focused on personal mobility or consumer electronics
• related to electrochemical supercapacitors, hybrid supercapacitors, lead-acid batteries or nickel-metal hydride batteries
• related to primary, non-rechargeable batteries
• research projects or projects that are academically intensive
• business-as-usual R&D
• non-collaborative
• overly reliant on subcontracting
• primarily seeking funding for capital equipment
• unable to demonstrate consideration of cost, market, environmental impact and business requirements
• primarily focused on physical system integration of battery technologies, such as integration into vehicles or energy storage systems

Project duration

6 to 18 months

Must start on or after 1 May 2027

End by 31 March 2031

Award value

Grant funding request between £70,000 and £500,000

Funding rates

For feasibility studies, which evaluate a project’s potential by uncovering key factors and informing confident, well-founded decisions about moving forward, funding is available for eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if the applicant is a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if the applicant is a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if the applicant is a large organisation

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs.

Eligibility criteria

• Projects must be collaborative and led by a UK registered business of any size
• Projects must include at least one grant claiming SME
• Collaborators can be a UK registered business of any size; an academic institution; a charity; a not for profit; a public sector organisation; or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Subcontractors should be UK-based with fully justified and appropriate costs. Overseas subcontractors can be used where there is sufficient justification for why a UK supplier cannot be used
• All funded project work must be carried out within the UK
• Projects must intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• Subsidy control and state aid rules apply