UK Battery Industrialisation Centre SME Credit Round 2

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

The majority of the costs for this grant funding must be subcontracting, of which UKBIC is the primary eligible subcontractor for this competition. All other subcontractor costs above 10% of the value of the project will be deemed ineligible.

An SME can only submit one application.

Your project must:

• for digital/software strand: have total costs between £70,000 and £300,000
• for processing strand: have total costs between £100,000 and £1 million
• last between 3 and 9 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start on by 1 July 2024
• end by 31 March 2025

The aim of this competition is to:

• support a micro, small or medium size enterprise’s (SME) research and development for the scale-up of battery technologies within the UK
• support an SME to access the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (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

Your project must demonstrate that you have developed or proven your innovation to a technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or above.

Your proposal must clearly demonstrate:

• the current maturity of your project or innovation including scale, yield and quality
• the work done to date to validate and prove your technology at its current level of maturity
• that your project or innovation is appropriate for, and compatible with, the giga-scale compatible pilot-line production facilities at UKBIC, for example, material and scale compatibility
• how you intend to use the UKBIC giga-scale pilot-line facilities
• the availability of materials and consumables for the project
• the nature of the outputs expected from the project
• the volume of product expected at the end of the project, if applicable
• how you will validate product performance
• how your project will accelerate your route to market
• how you will engage with customers during and following the project
• how the project outputs and outcomes will facilitate customer engagement

UKBIC operates an advanced and high throughput but conventional lithium iron (Li-ion) process line. This means that not all materials or processes will be compatible. Solid State processes are not viable on the existing line at this stage.

Your project must build and secure the UK supply chain for battery technologies.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• complete electrode and cell manufacturing process
• electrode manufacturing processes at scale
• new electrode formulations at scale, line compatibility to be confirmed dependent on specific solvent, either water or NMP, and material
• proving electrodes or other cell assembly processes at scale, for example, electrode only, includes mixing and coating, calendering 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 call formation data generated from UKBIC internal programmes only, with opportunities to leverage on data generated from a number of internal runs at UKBIC to support your innovation still retaining your intellectual property (IP)

You can use the UKBIC facility for:

• trial novel mixing
• coating
• slitting and calendering
• line-side and online gauging
• measurement and visions systems across all call manufacturing processes

Note: the trials may be undertaken on UKBIC internal development runs, with opportunities for you to leverage on data generated from a number of internal runs at UKBIC to support your innovation whilst retaining your IP.

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 environments
• reduce electrode drying energy whilst maintaining electrode performance and characteristics

We are not funding projects that:

• are cells assembly, formation and testing without the electrode stage
• are non-compatible materials, for example, lithium sulfur
• are non-compatible solvents, currently only water and NMP based processes can be undertaken at UKBIC
• are non-compatible cell formats, for example, 46xx, 18650 cylindrical calls and prismatic calls
• are solid state battery processes
• use technology which has not been proven at least TRL 4 to 5

Innovate UK KTN held an online briefing event on Tuesday 16 January 2024: click here to watch the recording.

If you would like to discuss your application, please contact the Innovate UK KTN Batteries team.