Faraday Institution – Advancing Battery Formation, Ageing, and Testing for Efficient Manufacturing and Sustainability

Funding for research projects addressing all steps in the battery cell finishing process including initial wetting, pre-treatment, formation cycling, ageing, testing and grading.

The Faraday Institution was established in 2017 as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund – Faraday Battery Challenge. The Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage science and technology, supporting research, training, and analysis.

The Faraday Institution has launched the Advancing Battery Formation, Ageing, and Testing for Efficient Manufacturing and Sustainability Call for Proposals to support a three-year project that addresses all steps in the cell finishing process including initial wetting, pre-treatment, formation cycling, ageing, testing and grading.

The objectives of the call are as follows:

• Develop new or optimised protocols for use in UK manufactured lithium-ion batteries to reduce energy consumption and processing time while ensuring stable SEI formation for efficient manufacture.
• Investigate alternative or accelerated ageing processes to improve battery stabilisation efficiency.
• Implement advanced in-line testing methods, such as AI-driven diagnostics, impedance spectroscopy, or non-destructive evaluation, to enhance quality assessment.
• To understand the science of formation, creating a flexible framework that can serve as a foundation for future chemistries and cell formats.

Projects will begin on 1 October 2025 and run for up to 36 months.