Battery Innovation Programme

The Battery Innovation Programme is a flagship of the UK Industrial Strategy, funded by the Department for Business and Trade and delivered by Innovate UK. It is driving research, innovation and growth across the UK battery manufacturing sector. With £452 million in government investment to 2030, the programme is building a stronger more connected battery ecosystem.

Its mission is to commercialise cutting-edge UK technologies, support the clean industries of tomorrow, and strengthen the UK as a global launchpad for battery innovation – creating jobs and attracting long-term investment.

It builds on the success of the Faraday Battery Challenge and combines:

Research and capability development at the Faraday Institution.
Collaborative business-led innovation, development of the wider ecosystem and skills needed to manufacture through Innovate UK. 149 organisations have been supported through the CR&D programme with over £500m forecasted in co-investment.
Manufacturing scale-up and skills development at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). Opened in July 2021, UKBIC has supported over 140 UK battery developers working on more than 80 research and innovation projects.

Graphic of the 3 strands of the Battery Innovation Programme - Faraday Institution for research, Innovate UK for Innovation and UKBIC for scale up

Gavin-White, CEO and Co-Founder of About Energy, setting up battery test equipment to understand the processes that lead to ageing.

Faraday Institution Research Feeds the Innovation Pipeline

Multiple delivery partners in the (now) Battery Innovation Programme interact with individual UK battery SMEs, accelerating their commercialisation journey. To date, 17 Innovate UK collaborative R&D projects have leveraged the knowledge, capabilities and know-how developed by the Faraday Institution research community.

For example, in 2023, About:Energy was awarded a Faraday Battery Challenge project to further develop their product The Voltt, in a project involving Faraday Institution researchers from the Multiscale Modelling project at Imperial College London. Launched in October 2025, their web-based platform enables engineers to virtually test and compare pre-validated battery cells from top manufacturers under real-world conditions. It streamlines one of the most critical stages of battery design: cell selection, which determines both performance and economics.

Battery Innovation Programme: Creating a vibrant tech sector in the UK

In 2024, a report commissioned by UK Research and Innovation‘s Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and produced by Dealroom.co shows that UK-based electrical vehicle battery start-ups have raised $2.7 billion in funds from venture capital (VC) investments since 2018.

This makes the UK the fourth largest recipient of VC investment in EV batteries in the past five years, following the US, China and Sweden.

Faraday Battery Challenge-funded UK EV battery start-ups have raised $1 billion in VC investment since 2018 – those 52 UK battery startups supported by the Faraday Battery Challenge are also valued at over $2 billion.

To learn more about the financial strength of the UK EV battery sector, read the full report published in October 2024.

Want to find out more?

View the Faraday Battery Challenge page on the UKRI website

View the UKBIC website

Join the Cross-Sector Battery Systems Innovation Network run by Innovate UK Business Connect

Read about all the projects funded through the Faraday Battery Challenge