As the global race to scale up battery manufacturing intensifies, the UK is making a bold move to stay ahead.
The Faraday Institution has announced a £9m investment in two transformative research projects that promise to speed up production, cut costs, and unlock the next generation of battery technologies.
Set to begin in October 2025, the initiatives will not only tackle inefficiencies in today’s gigafactories but also pioneer new materials that could redefine energy storage for electric vehicles, the grid, and aerospace.
The initiative marks the first step in a series of programmes following the government’s £452m investment in the Battery Innovation Programme announced in June 2025.
Commenting on the initiative, UK Industry Minister Sarah Jones, said: “Through our Modern Industrial Strategy, we’re going further than ever before to back industry, with the biggest package of investments ever launched by a British government to turbocharge growth.
“With this funding, we’re ensuring we stay at the cutting edge of innovation by backing scale-ups, research and fast-tracking new technologies to market.”
A strategic boost for the UK battery sector
The new projects are designed to tackle critical bottlenecks in commercial production while also laying the groundwork for breakthrough battery chemistries.
By focusing on both immediate battery manufacturing challenges and long-term disruptive materials, the Faraday Institution is positioning the UK to lead in the rapidly expanding global battery market.
Long-term funding is also enabling the launch of “Transformational Challenges” – ambitious research streams aimed at applications with extraordinary impact potential.
The first, UltraStore, will explore ultra-low-cost long-duration energy storage for grid use. A second initiative, focused on ultra-high energy density batteries for aerospace and defence, is set to be announced later this year.
Tackling manufacturing bottlenecks: The FAST project
One of the newly funded initiatives, the Advancing Battery Formation, Ageing and Testing (FAST) project, will focus on the final stages of the battery manufacturing process.
Currently, these steps are energy-hungry, time-intensive and costly, yet vital for establishing the protective interphase layers that govern a battery’s lifespan, capacity, and safety.
Led by Professor Emma Kendrick at the University of Birmingham, alongside a consortium of academic and industrial partners, the FAST project will develop a science-based framework to optimise these processes.
Researchers will track and model the physical and chemical changes that occur during formation and ageing, using the insights to design new protocols that cut battery manufacturing time, lower energy consumption, and improve reproducibility at gigafactory scale.
The project will initially target high-nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistries with graphite and graphite–silicon anodes, aiming to maximise energy density and cycle life while making production more sustainable.
A leap in cathode design: The 3D-CAT project
The second major programme, the 3D-CAT project, will focus on cathode innovation – a critical route to performance improvements in lithium-ion batteries.
Led by Dr Robert House of the University of Oxford, the research team will develop lithium-rich 3D cathode materials from first principles through to synthesis at scale and validation in pouch cells.
These next-generation cathodes could deliver the high performance of NMC chemistries without relying on expensive, geopolitically sensitive precursors.
Recent studies suggest that controlling partial ordering within disordered rocksalts can improve lithium transport networks, boosting both charging speed and discharge performance.
By harnessing these insights, 3D-CAT aims to create cathode materials that outperform widely used lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) chemistries while offering a more secure and scalable supply chain.
Delivering innovation for the future
Both projects are expected to run until September 2028, with confirmation of extended funding anticipated in early 2026.
Together, they represent a major step towards making battery manufacturing faster, cleaner, and more cost-effective, while also laying the groundwork for next-generation technologies.
Professor Martin Freer, CEO, Faraday Institution, added: “The UK’s sustained investment in research at its world-leading universities is unlocking transformative battery discoveries that, when translated into industry, will drive major advances in performance across multiple sectors.
“The government’s long-term commitment ensures that breakthroughs move from the lab to commercial application, fuelling economic growth, and creating high-value jobs for the future.”
With the global demand for batteries soaring across electric vehicles, energy storage and aerospace, the Faraday Institution’s latest investment signals the UK’s determination to play a leading role in shaping the future of energy storage.
