Summary The battery is the most important component of electric vehicles, determining performance, range, vehicle packaging, cost and vehicle lifetime. The automotive industry is a UK success story, employing 814,000 people and turning over £77.5bn per year. The UK is home to Europe's largest automotive battery and EV manufacturer. Our automotive industry is committed to the transition from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles, preserving and expanding jobs and prosperity. The UK will not succeed if it has to rely on Asian or US supply chains for batteries. It will not succeed by simply catching up with today's lithium batteries. We must leapfrog current technology by carrying out more effectively and at scale basic research in batteries and then translating it more seamlessly into innovation and manufacture. This is the ambition of the Faraday Challenge, announced and funded by government, with its three elements: the Faraday Institution (research), Innovate UK (development) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre (industrialisation). The Faraday Institution, in particular, must invest in the UK science and engineering base so that it drives innovation, delivering leading edge battery technology for Britain. We propose to establish the Faraday Institute headquarters (FIHQ) as an independent organization, based at Harwell, the centre of UK science, and with a satellite office at the National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility once completed. It will not belong to any University or group of universities, nor be aligned with particular companies. It will be a UK resource. The FIHQ will be governed by an independent board drawn from academia, industry and independents. It will contain an Expert Panel bringing together in one organisation the UK knowledge base in batteries. The Expert Panel will translate industrial needs for better batteries into specific research challenges and scope calls for proposals from the University sector to carry out research to meet these challenges. It will support intellectual leadership to the Research Projects within the universities, review the projects, advise the board on allocation and reallocation of resources and stop/start of projects. Dedicated personnel will work to ensure research with the greatest scope for exploitation is transferred to innovation and ultimately manufacture. Intellectual property will be owned by the universities but pooled, forming a portfolio of battery IP with a value greater than the sum of its parts. The headquarters will run a training programme. This will include are PhD cluster with the students placed in the universities alongside the FI Research Projects but also with a strong cohort ethos across the Faraday institution. Training for industry and government will be a strong element of the FIHQ activities. . By carrying out strategic research in batteries as a nationally managed portfolio and with greater scale and focus, we will not only enhance the quality and capacity of UK battery research, but also establish the UK as the go to place for leading battery technology. By doing so we will supporting the future UK manufacturing industry, jobs and prosperity.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

Breakthroughs in battery technologies are critically needed to enable the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and the grid-scale storage of renewable energy. Solid-state batteries using a lithium (Li) metal anode are rapidly emerging and promise greater range and charging speeds, as well as improved safety. However, dendrite formation almost universally compromises such cells, and they quickly fail under realistic operating conditions. Only inorganic glassy solid electrolyes (SEs) have shown the exceptional ability to "template" stable Li plating/stripping at relevant rates. However, these SEs remain underexplored as they require high-cost, low-throughput vacuum deposition techniques that are incompatible with large-scale battery production. The aim of this research proposal is to engineer a new family of scalable "templating layers" to enable high-rate solid-state batteries. Taking inspiration from vacuum-deposited SEs -- namely the homogeneous, non-crystalline (glass) structure, electrically insulating nature and very flat morphology of the SE used -- we will use low temperature, solution-based techniques that can realise these key attributes and be easily scaled-up to industrially relevant levels. A major challenge in engineering glassy materials stems from their inherent disorder, meaning the critical relationships between atomic structure, electrochemical properties and processing usually remain elusive. A suite of advanced characterisation methods, including X-ray scattering, thermal desorption spectroscopy and operando imaging, will uncover new design rules that span materials to devices. The outputs of this study will be invaluable for the study of disordered functional coatings and have wide impact in energy storage, especially to related battery chemistries, microelectronics and sensing applications.

Transition to low-carbon is one of the key goals for this century to ensure the effects of man-made climate change are limited, and perhaps, mitigated. Through the electrification of transport, polluting fossil fuels and the harmful emissions generated by their consumption can be significantly reduced. The E-transport paradigm is challenging due to the introduction of large energy demands on the electricity supply grid, requirement for the installation of a national charging infrastructure, limited battery capacity leading to range anxiety, uncertainties around cost and user experience, including the expectation that vehicle fuels can be replenished within just a few minutes, to name but a few. These issues span the whole of society and have wide reaching implications: if the Electric Vehicle (EV) experience is not "satisfactory" then consumers will be reluctant to make the switch. To address this challenge, an EV charging solution that can deliver fully grid-independent, renewably powered charging is required. This solution should stand to: (i) facilitate the deployment of new renewable generating capacity for the purposes of EV charging; and (ii) overcome existing national grid capacity constraints for growth in the EV charging-load. Such a solution could also underpin the creation of localised smart grids, that can flexibly support energy demand in communities under-served by the current infrastructure, further alleviating pressure on the existing electricity grid. Through the "FEVER concept" devised in this programme grant, the investigators will design, develop and demonstrate such an EV charging solution. FEVER will use renewable generation, within an innovative off-vehicle energy storage (OVES) system, to offer a secure, year-round, grid-independent charging for EVs. Moving beyond the state-of-the-art technologies a cost-effective and socially-acceptable 'hybrid' OVES will be developed, that is suitable for both urban and rural deployment and use. This interdisciplinary project unites a diverse team of academic scientists and engineers (mechanical, electronics and electrical, computer science) and social scientists (psychology, economics and management) across three research-led UK universities: Southampton, Sheffield and Surrey. The expertise embodied by this team reflects the fact that it is a combination of technological viability, financial cost and social acceptance (including socio-political, market/end-user, and community acceptance) that typically determines the operational and commercial success of a given innovation. Only utilising a platform like the programme grant scheme, can this wide range of expertise and backgrounds be brought together with key industrial partners from the sector (including Shell, Cenex, Siemens, Hive Energy, Wood Clean Energy and Yuasa) to address such a complex problem and provide an integrated research and innovation solution. Through the programme, the team aims to: (1) Understanding the problem context by investigating the current barriers and drivers affecting the development of fully grid-independent, renewables powered OVES based EV charging stations. (2) Design, develop and trial viable, low-cost, and socially-endorsed solutions to this problem via the novel combination of energy storage technologies (including different battery technologies, and supercapacitors). (3) Construct two functioning demonstrations of an optimised OVES concept (i.e. FEVER), to verify and validate its real-world performance as an EV charging solution, and to explore opportunities to use the technology to support wider local demand for electricity from homes, industry and business (via the creation of local 'smart-grids'). (4) Investigate key factors affecting social approval of the FEVER concept and specific demonstrators among key groups and individuals likely to affect the commercial success of the technology (e.g. policy makers, the public).

The UK energy system is changing rapidly. Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 43% between 1990 and 2017, and renewables now account for 30% of electricity generation. Despite this progress, achieving emissions reductions has been difficult outside the electricity sector, and progress could stall without more effective policy action. The Paris Agreement means that the UK may have to go further than current targets, to achieve a net zero energy system. Reducing emissions is not the only important energy policy goal. Further, progress need to be made whilst minimising the costs to consumers and taxpayers; maintaining high levels of energy security; and maximising economic, environmental and social benefits. There is a clear need for research to understand the nature of the technical, economic, political, environmental and societal dynamics affecting the energy system - including the local, national and international components of these dynamics. This proposal sets out UKERC's plans for a 4th phase of research and engagement (2019-2024) that addresses this challenge. It includes a programme of interdisciplinary research on sustainable future energy systems. This is driven by real-world energy challenges whilst exploring new questions, methods and agendas. It also explains how UKERC's central activities will be developed further, including new capabilities to support energy researchers and decision-makers. The UKERC phase 4 research programme will focus on new challenges and opportunities for implementing the energy transition, and will be concerned with the three main questions: - How will global, national and local developments influence the shape and pace of the UK's transition towards a low carbon energy system? - What are the potential economic, political, social and environmental costs and benefits of energy system change, and how can they be distributed equitably? - Which actors could take the lead in implementing the next stage of the UK's energy transition, and what are the implications for policy and governance? To address these questions, the research programme includes seven interrelated research themes: UK energy in a global context; Local and regional energy systems; Energy, environment, and landscape; Energy infrastructure transitions; Energy for mobility; Energy systems for heat; and Industrial decarbonisation. The proposal sets out details of research within these themes, plans for associated PhD studentships and details of the flexible research fund that will be used to commission additional research projects, scoping studies and to support integration. A first integration project on energy and the economy will be undertaken at the start of UKERC phase 4. The research themes are complemented by four national capabilities that form part of the research programme: an expanded Technology and Policy Assessment (TPA) capability; a new Energy Modelling Hub; the UKERC Energy Data Centre; and a new Public Engagement Observatory. Research within TPA and the Observatory will align and integrate with the main research themes. These four capabilities will also enhance UKERC's ability to provide evidence, data and expertise for academic, policy, industry and other stakeholder communities. The UKERC headquarters (HQ) team will support the management and co-ordination of the research programme; and will also undertake a range of other functions to support the broader UK energy research community and its key stakeholders. These functions include promoting networking and engagement between stakeholders in academia, policy, industry and third sector (including through a networking fund), supporting career development and capacity building, and enhancing international collaboration (including through the UK's participation in the European Energy Research Alliance).