The UK’s leading manufacturing industries will be boosted £211 million in new government funding for battery research and innovation.

Record funding will be delivered through the Faraday Battery Challenge, which began in 2017 and supports scientific technology development and manufacturing scale-up capability for batteries in the UK.

The Faraday Battery Challenge will help to select opportunities for private investment and economic growth in industries where batteries will be essential – such as domestic energy storage and electric vehicles.

Funding, from last year’s settlement, 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, boosting tax revenues and improving public services.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, who announced the funding, said: “Safe and powerful batteries are central to our plans to grow the industries of the future.

“From our world leading renewables industry to our growing electric vehicle sector, secure supplies of batteries are key to delivering jobs and prosperity.

“The Faraday Battery Challenge has brought the UK’s greatest minds and best facilities together to develop the innovations that will help us achieve this goal. The work it has done since 2017 has laid the groundwork for our future economic success and I am pleased to confirm this work will continue, supported by record funding.”

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

Recommended

• Scottish Highlands getting ultrafast fibre broadband
• Scots islands lose phone and internet connections in major incident
• AI poses an ‘existential threat to humanity,’ say 49% of IT pros

Faraday Battery Challenge Director Tony Harper said: “This new funding allows us to strengthen the foundation we’ve created by consolidating and building on the UK’s position to become a battery science superpower. We now have an opportunity to ensure that our national industrialisation infrastructure remains world leading in this fast-evolving critical net zero technology.

“With the support of the Challenge, the £130 million UKBIC in Coventry opened three years ahead of its nearest European competition. The Centre provides the link between battery research and successful mass production. So far UKBIC has supported over 140 UK battery developers, working on more than 80 research and innovation projects, to successfully scale their products to market.”

Along with the Challenge, the UK government is helping to deliver a world leading electric vehicle industry for the UK through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF).

Through the ATF the UK has secured major investments in battery production, including Envision AESC expanding their existing plant in Sunderland.

A further £4m is also being announced through UKRI’s Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge to support skills, talent and training across Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) manufacturing and supply chains.

PEMD components are the parts that make things ‘go’, from cars to hairdryers, underpinning a wide range of high-value industries.

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.