The Faraday Institution is a British research institute aiming to advance battery science and technology. It was established in 2017 as part of the UK's wider Faraday Battery Challenge. It states its mission as having four key areas: "electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis and early-stage commercialisation". The Institution is headquartered at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Oxford. It is a limited company and is a registered charity with an independent board of trustees.

Name

The Faraday Institution is named after Michael Faraday, an English scientist who contributed to the basic understanding of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He popularised the now common battery terminology " anode", " cathode", " electrode" and " ion". Faraday lectured on education at the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

in 1854 and appeared before a Public Schools Commission to give his views on education in Great Britain. Between 1827 and 1860 at the Royal Institution, Faraday presented nineteen Christmas lectures for young people. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures series continues today, broadcast on the BBC. Following this tradition, the Faraday Institution runs education and public engagement activities. In 2019, it launched a public discussion series on batteries with the Royal Institution and continued the programme in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Research programmes

The Faraday Institution currently focuses on research in

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...

, "beyond" lithium-ion battery technologies and energy storage for emerging economies. Research is conducted in multidisciplinary teams with expertise that ranges across chemical engineering,

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, data and computer science, mechanical engineering,

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, law, materials science, maths and physics.

Lithium ion

* Battery degradation * Multi-scale modelling *

Battery recycling Battery recycling is a recycling activity that aims to reduce the number of batteries being disposed as municipal solid waste. Batteries contain a number of heavy metals and toxic chemicals and disposing of them by the same process as regular ...

and reuse * Electrode manufacturing *

Cathode materials A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. A conventional current describes the direction in whi ...

* Battery safety

Beyond Lithium ion

* Solid-state batteries * Sodium-ion batteries * Lithium-sulfur batteries

Batteries for Emerging Economies

With funding from the

FCDO The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign ...

, in 2020 the Faraday Institution commenced research on battery technologies for use in developing countries and emerging economies. * Soluble lead flow batteries * Graphite polysulphide single liquid flow batteries

Founding universities and participating universities

The Faraday Institution was founded by seven universities: * Imperial College London *

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

* University College London * University of Cambridge * University of Oxford * University of Southampton * University of Warwick The Faraday Institution's research projects are competitive and open to all academic battery researchers and research groups in the UK. In 2020, university participants included the following: * Imperial College London *

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

* Coventry University *

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

* University College London * University of Cambridge * University of Oxford * University of Southampton * University of Warwick * University of Bath * University of Birmingham * University of Cambridge * University of Edinburgh * University of Leicester * University of Liverpool * University of Manchester * University of Nottingham * University of Oxford *

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

* University of Sheffield * University of Southampton * University of St. Andrews *

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

* University of Warwick

Impacts on policy

The Faraday Institution publishes white papers and reports to inform both government and industry on energy storage science, technology, economics, supply chains and employment. Its report on UK battery demand was used to evidence the requirement for UK based automotive battery gigafactories and the need for the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to support establishing them.

Battery Sustainability, Recycling and Reuse

The Faraday Institution participates in international efforts on sustainability and the recycling and reuse of lithium-ion batteries in emerging economies and developing countries. An effort with NREL as part of the World Bank Energy Storage Partnership led to the 2020 publication of "Global Overview of Energy Storage Performance Test Protocols" that provides support and knowledge across the developing world on opportunities and technologies for energy storage in the electric sector. It contributed to the 2020 study "Reuse and Recycling: Environmental Sustainability of Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage Systems", which offers an assessment of the role developing countries can play in this area. It is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Battery Alliance, an international consortium focused on a

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...

and sustainable value chain for batteries and contributed to the 2019 report "A Vision for a Sustainable Battery Value Chain in 2030."

Outreach and education

The Faraday Institution maintains outreach and education programmes that extend across

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

, undergraduate attraction, doctoral training and early career professional development to generate trained battery scientists and engineers. To ensure the public has the best information on the opportunities and challenges of energy storage, and that future generations of scientists and engineers from all backgrounds are inspired to pursue promising STEM careers, the Faraday Institution has engaged delivery partners including

the Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, in ...

, SEO London, WISE Campaign, The Curiosity Box and the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT).

Notable scientists associated with the Faraday Institution

Peter Littlewood Peter Brent Littlewood (born 18 May 1955) is a British physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He was the 12th Director of Argonne National Laboratory. He previously headed the Cavendish Laboratory as well as the Theory ...

, Chair of the Board of Trustees *

Pamela Thomas Pamela Anne Thomas is a British condensed matter physicist, and former Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Warwick, where she leads the Ferroelectrics & Crystallography group. Her work focuses on the structure and related prope ...

, Chief Executive Officer *Sir Peter Bruce, Chief Scientist *Dame Clare Grey, Principal Investigator *

Serena Corr Serena Corr is a chair in Functional Materials and Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She works on next-generation battery materials and advanced characterisation techniques for nanomaterials. Ear ...

, Principal Investigator * Saiful Islam, Principal Investigator *

Kristina Edström Kristina Edström (born 2 June 1958) is a Swedish Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Uppsala University. She also serves as Head of the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC) and has previously been both Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty ...

, Trustee

References

External links

*{{URL, https://faraday.ac.uk/ Battery (electricity) Lithium-ion batteries Research institutes in England 2017 establishments in the United Kingdom Energy storage Battery recycling Grid energy storage Research institutes in Oxfordshire Research and development in the United Kingdom