The UK government is to invest up to £246m to help scaleup battery technology development and expertise over the next four years.
Delivering a keynote speech in Birmingham today, business and energy secretary Greg Clark will launch the first phase of the investment worth £45m.
Known as the ’Faraday Challenge’, the funding programme is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy and will set out to deliver a coordinated programme of competitions with the aim of boosting battery technology R&D in the UK.
Clark said: “Our strategy will create the conditions that boost earning power throughout the country – its people, places and companies.
“If every part of Britain is to prosper in the future we need to ensure that we have the right policies and institutions in place to drive the productivity – which is to say, the earning power – of the economy, and the people and places that make it up.”
The first element of the funding programme will be a competition led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which will seek to create a Battery Institute.
According to a statement, the most promising research undertaken by the Institute will be moved closer to market through industrial collaborations led by Innovate UK.
“The work that we do through the Faraday Challenge will – quite literally – power the automotive and energy revolution where, already, the UK is leading the world,” Clark added.
The announcement follows on from a review commissioned as part of the Industrial Strategy green paper.