The Faraday Institution has been appointed to lead the UK Government’s Ayrton Challenge on Energy Storage (ACES). As part of this, the Faraday Institution will lead a research and development programme focused on expanding energy access, facilitating emissions reductions, and supporting energy transitions in developing countries. The programme will lead on the development of improved and lower cost battery energy storage systems.

The first phase of the £5m R&D programme is a call for Seed studies. These are short research projects to rapidly screen out less promising research directions and funnel more promising research at low technology readiness levels into other initiatives, see the call document for more information.

The Faraday Institution is therefore inviting proposals from researchers for projects that will identify enabling research or understanding that could ultimately be used, or lead to, an improvement in the areas of interest below, or that will overcome a key challenge in the adoption of new technologies.

• Low-cost alternative chemistries
• Optimising systems to maximise performance and improve efficiency and lifetime, specifically tailored to the typical operating conditions found in deployment locations such as Sub-Saharan Africa
• Improving battery/system performance, design, and interoperability, with a particular focus on e-mobility applications.
• Recycling

Applicants must clearly link their project to the aims of ACES and the intended region of use.

These small research projects are not intended to be ‘business as usual’ – they are to be fast-paced, focused projects, delivering transformative results that may lead to a second stage of collaborative research beyond the initial exploratory work.

A total amount of funding available is £600k for up to 6 awards between £50,000 to £150,000 per award.

Proposed projects should start no later than 28^th February 2024. All projects must be completed by 31^st March 2025, though it is expected that they will last between 6-9 months. As we are working on an accelerated timeline for these novel projects, it is likely that researchers will need to already be in post or available on a short timescale.

Prior to application, please discuss your proposed scope with the Faraday Institution team directly with all contact information on page 1 of the call document.

Please read the full call document for guidance before submitting your proposal. Applications should be submitted by 12:00 noon, on Tuesday 31^st of October via the Flexigrant portal selecting the “ACES Seed/Accelerator call.”