UKBIC SME Credit Round 2 – Competition Briefing Event

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Overview

UKRI’s Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, will support UK registered small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The funding competition will enable you to apply for a share of up to £1.5m to increase and facilitate your engagement with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). Click here for more details of the available funding.

The aim of the 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 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.

About the Competition

This competition is split into 2 strands:

• UK Battery Industrialisation Centre Round 2 – Digital/Software projects.
• UK Battery Industrialisation Centre Round 2 – Processing capability for electrode and cells projects.

Who should attend?

UK-registered SME businesses only who are scaling-up battery electrode and cell technologies.

• Complete cell development project iterations, for example electrode through cells, includes mixing and coating, calendaring, and slitting, up to cell assembly, formation, and ageing.
• Prove electrodes at scale, for example electrode only, includes mixing and coating, calendaring, and slitting.
• Developing cell to module and pack assembly processes and associated testing.
• Testing process measurement and control systems on the UKBIC cell manufacturing process line, while considering integration for closed loop control of processes.
• Using novel software analytical methods for manufacturing and cell formation data.

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.

The timeline for the competition will be:

• Competition opens: 8 January 2024
• Online competition briefing event: 16 January 2024
• Competition closes: 6 March 2024

Funding support for eligible costs will be confirmed once the formal call is published.

We encourage all applicants to contact UKBIC prior to the event for any technical questions by emailing: sales@ukbic.co.uk