Internships can prove pivotal in defining career steps post PhD and build relationships that lead to future employment. The Faraday Institution works with a wide range of partners to offer three-month internships to PhD researchers based at UK universities who are working on energy storage.

To autumn 2025, 38 PhD internships had been completed, with a third converted to full time roles.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the internship with WAE. It has been the highlight of my PhD, and it would never have happened without the careers event that the Faraday Institution organised or all the work the team have done for the cohort over the years.”

Jacob Dean, Data Scientist at WAE and former Faraday Institution PhD researcher

Jacob Dean at WAE

Jacob Dean at WAE.

Aims of the PhD Internship programme:

An internship may enable:

  1. access to equipment or facility that would otherwise not be available
  2. the opportunity to work with an industry partner
  3. collaboration with a different academic group or institution
  4. exploration of a different related area such as supply chain or economic forecasting relating to batteries
  5. experience of policy making

Benefits to the internship provider:

Funding options:

  1. PhD researcher to continue receiving their stipend (with supervisor permission) and therefore only seek reimbursement of any travel and accommodation costs from the internship provider
  2. PhD researcher to apply for an interruption to studies from their university and undertake a paid internship position

Faraday Institution PhD Internship Scheme

Want to find out more? Able to offer internships? Contact Dom Grantley-Smith, Training Manager, and complete an internship provider form.

With thanks to our internship providers to date who include:

Logos of internship providers: AMT Power, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Exawatt, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lambda energy, ESA, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Rho Motion, Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, WAE, Imperial Policy Forum, Technische Universitat Dresden, WMG, UCL, CPI, About Energy.
Internship providers logos: Brill Power, Sention, Gaussion, Prosemino, Echion Technologies, Anaphite, Ionworks, Warwick, Green Jobs Foundation, Energy Revolution Ventures.

Faraday Institution PhD Internship Spotlights

Roksana Jackowska

Roksana completed a three-month internship with Ionworks, a battery software startup developing open-source tools and data-driven platforms for battery modelling and simulation.

James Nohl

James reflects on the value of a three-month internship with Redoxion, a London-based startup developing more sustainable and cost-effective solutions for manufacturing lithium-ion cathode materials.

Georgia Rowe

One of the first Faraday Institution PhD researchers to secure an internship overseas – at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) in Germany – with visits to the prestigious Fraunhofer Institute.

Jacob Dean

Faraday Institution PhD internship leads to exciting industry role at Fortescue Zero (formerly WAE). The impact of growing one’s network.

Alexander Dimitrijevic

Perseverance reaps rewards: Alexander Dimitrijevic secured an eight-month battery internship realising his childhood dream to work in the space sector.

Dana Thompson

Dana completed a 3-month internship with Jaguar Land Rover in the Advanced Cell Engineering team.

Louis Dawson

Faraday Institution PhD researcher contributes to an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report.

Aaron Wade

Aaron completed a three-month internship in May 2021 with Exawatt, an SME based in Sheffield that provides strategic consulting, research and insight in energy storage.

Victor Riesgo-Gonzalez

Victor completed a three-month internship with Lambda Energy, a start-up that develops spectral converters to improve solar panels and increase the biomass yield in greenhouses.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (Internship provider)

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and the Faraday Institution have a shared commitment to developing talent for the UK battery sector.

Exawatt and CRU Group (Internship provider)

Internships at Exawatt have provided researchers with valuable opportunities to gain technical skills and a more diverse perspective of the battery industry as a whole.