If you’ve got a UK company that’s working on innovative battery tech, check in with the funding body UK Research and Innovation, which has launched a new £1.5-million competition to support UK small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) working in the battery sector.

The competition will give SMEs the opportunity to work with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), which was created to provide UK battery manufacturing scale-up and skills for the battery sector.

The competition is open to UK SMEs focused on complete battery cell development projects, including mixing and coating, calendering and slitting, to cell assembly, formation and ageing; and proving electrode manufacturing at scale, including mixing and coating.

“Developing a home-grown cell supply chain is critical to the growth of the UK’s battery industry and the cornerstone of building an ecosystem which can support the establishment of gigafactories in the UK,” said UKBIC Business Development Manager Dr. Vishal Nayar. “This competition will help bridge the gap for those companies who wish to get on the scale-up ladder.”

“By giving SMEs working in the battery industry the opportunity to use the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre’s state-of-the-art facilities at a reduced cost, we hope to develop UK battery innovations that may not otherwise get a chance,” said Oyebola Bello, Program Manager at the Faraday Battery Challenge. “We’re supporting that move from technological potential towards commercial capability.”

The competition will close for entries on  April 4.  Interested companies should contact UKBIC at sales@ukbic.co.uk.

Source: Battery Tech Hub