In the summer of 2024, the Faraday Undergraduate Summer Experience (FUSE) internship programme is providing 55 internships for undergraduate students to undertake paid-eight week placements with battery researchers from partner organisations.

Goals of the internships are:

• Provide opportunity to gain research experience
• To inspire young people to pursue careers in the fields of battery technology and energy storage
• To diversify the pool of talent
• To increase participants’ knowledge, skills and aspirations
• Give contact with positive role models

Participating institutions construct project research topics that connect to the Faraday Institution research projects and select interns on a competitive basis from a diverse pool of applicants. Working alongside a supervisor, students have access to other research scientists. Interns are invited to join cohort video calls on a range of topics. At the end of the summer, and with the assistance of their supervisor, each intern prepares a poster detailing their scientific research project. 

A number of FUSE interns have successfully gone on to undertake a PhD in battery research or work in the battery sector. Read Siddhi Barhanpurkar’s Faraday Pathway career journey, and a blog post highlighting the success of the 2023 FUSE programme.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be registered full-time undergraduate student from a UK university.
• Undertake the internship within the years of their undergraduate study (i.e., not in final year or during a subsequent Masters’ programme).
• Not have been a FUSE intern in a previous year

Application processes vary by university.

Topics

Internships are in-person unless indicated below.

	Project Title	Supervisor(s)	Host organisation	Application status
	CATMAT
1	Synthesis of manganese-based disordered rock-salt phases via low temperature routes	Peter Slater and Wilgner Lima da Silva	University of Birmingham	Open
2	Towards preventing degradation in next-generation lithium-rich cathode materials	Dominic Spencer-Jolly and Emma Kendrick	University of Birmingham	Closed
3	Understanding cracking behaviour in next generation battery materials	Rhodri Jervis	University College London	Open
4	High energy density lithium-rich spinel cathodes	Robert House	University of Oxford	Open
5	Understanding mechanochemical processes for new electrode production	Peter Slater and Adam Michalchuk	University of Birmingham	Open
	Degradation project
6	Machine learning molecular dynamics for battery materials	Ioan-Bogdan Magdau	Newcastle University	Closed
7	Operando Raman investigation of battery degradation	Michael De Volder	University of Cambridge	Topic announced
8	Best of both worlds: mixed LFP/NMC battery and electrochemical optimisation	Galo J. Paez Fajardo	University of Warwick	Closed
9	Performance and aging evaluation of Li-ion batteries with novel formulations	Debashis Tripathy	University of Cambridge	Closed
10	Investigating degradation in olivine cathodes for lithium-ion batteries	Hrishit Banerjee	University of Cambridge (hybrid working)	Closed
11	Dielectric constant determination of battery electrolytes using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy	Svetlana Menkin	University of Cambridge	Closed
	FutureCat
12	Investigation of high-entropy metal oxide electrodes by pair distribution function analysis	Xiao Hua and Hekang Zhu	Lancaster University	Closed
13	Traceless delivery of singlet oxygen for assessing electrolyte degradation	Lee Johnson and Kieran Jones	University of Nottingham	Closed
	LiSTAR
14	Moving towards carbon fibres based lithium metal pouch cells	Magdalena Titirici and Samantha Southern	Imperial College London	Closed
15	Exploring TAP900@Fe single atom catalysts for enhanced lithium-sulfur battery performance	Magdalena Titirici and Mengjun Gong	Imperial College London	Closed
16	Voltammetric studies of sulfur redox reactions	Darren Walsh	University of Nottingham	Open
17	Solvation and transport in electrolytes for Li-S batteries	Mauro Pasta, Ben Jagger and Camilla Di Mino	University of Oxford	Closed
	Multi-scale Modelling
18	Building fast electro-thermal models with heat-flow simulations on a spiral domain	Mark Blythe	University of Bristol (hybrid working)	Closed
19	Modelling electrode coating with PyBaMM	Ferran Brosa Planella and Masoud Jabbari	University of Warwick (hybrid working)	Open
20	Particle velocimetry for transference numbers	Charles Monroe	University of Oxford	Topic announced
21	Pattern recognition in drive cycles to approximate equivalent current-rate cycles	Gregory Offer and Derek Siu	Imperial College London	Open
22	Characterising the effects of pressure distribution on parallel-connected lithium-ion batteries	Monica Marinescu	Imperial College London	Open
23	Heat generation mapping of a range of cells	Carlos Garcia	Imperial College London	Open
24	Optimising coin cell manufacture and harvesting electrode materials	Gregory Offer and Derek Siu	Imperial College London	Open
25	Quantifying battery degradation through post-mortem imaging and virtual reconstruction	Gregory Offer and Derek Siu	Imperial College London	Open
	NEXGENNA
26	Battery scale-up facility for capability demonstration and prototyping	John Irvine	University of St Andrews	Open
27	Automating battery data outputs	John Irvine	University of St Andrews	Open
	Nextrode
28	Preparation of stable water-based inks for high Ni content cathodes	Peter Slater and Tomislav Friscic	University of Birmingham	Open
29	Low temperature processing of solid state electrolytes	Peter Slater and Josh Makepeace	University of Birmingham	Open
30	Low cost mechanochemical approaches to battery materials	Peter Slater and Tomislav Friscic	University of Birmingham	Open
	ReLiB
31	Advancing sustainability: recycling and manufacturing lithium-rich cathodes from high-power lithium-ion battery materials	Peter Slater and Bo Dong	University of Birmingham	Closed
32	Reduction and recovery of cathode active material from end of life batteries	Dan Reed	University of Birmingham	Closed
33	Electro-spun graphitic carbon fibres for anodes	Gerard Fernando	University of Birmingham	Closed
34	Development of characterisation of end of life batterie electrodes for automated sorting	Dan Reed	University of Birmingham	Closed
	SafeBatt
35	CATION PaD (Current and Temperature Influence on Nucleation Propagation and Dendrite Growth)	Mel Loveridge	University of Warwick	Open
36	Database for fire modelling of Li-ion batteries	Francesco Restuccia	King's College London	Closed
37	A quantitative risk assessment of Li-ion battery failure	Solomon Brown	University of Sheffield	Topic announced
38	Developing an internal short circuit model for implementation into existing Li-ion thermal runaway models	Solomon Brown	University of Sheffield	Topic announced
39 & 40	3D visualisation and spatial distribution analysis of gases released during lithium-ion battery thermal runaway (2 positions)	Wojciech Mrozik	Newcastle University	Topic announced
41	Exploring the application of acoustic techniques to improve battery safety	James Robinson and Arthur Fordham	University College London	Open
	SOLBAT
42	Single ion sodium-conducting polymers for enhanced solid-state battery performance	Georgina Gregory	University of Oxford	Topic announced
43	Achieving high current densities with sulfide solid state batteries	Mauro Pasta and Jack Aspinall	University of Oxford	Closed
44	Titration of lithium metal to study SEI formation	Mauro Pasta and Matthew Burton	University of Oxford	Closed
45	Investigating the extent of solid electrolyte interphase growth in sulfide solid-electrolytes	Gregory Rees	University of Oxford	Open
	Other Projects
46	Designing low-resistance jigs to improve cell testing quality and charging performance	Harris Medwell	Breathe Battery Technologies - London	Open
47	Developing software to test automotive battery management systems	Dimitrios Panagiotopoulos	Breathe Battery Technologies - London	Topic announced
48	Battery fast charging	Tom Heenan	Gaussion - London	Open
49	Battery fast charging for cylindrical cells	Tom Heenan	Gaussion - London	Open
50	Battery fast charging for prismatic cells	Tom Heenan	Gaussion - London	Open
51	Charge photometric activity correlations in commercial battery electrodes	Elena Pascal	Illumion - Cambridge	Open
52	Bringing physics-based models to industry through improved Battery Parameter eXchange support in PyBaMM	Robert Timms	Ion-Works (remote working)	Open
53	ReSTOR: Exploring reconditioning methods for lithium polysulfide flow batteries	Edward Brightman	University of Strathclyde	Open
54	Soluble lead flow battery: system control and monitoring	Richard Wills	Univeristy of Southampton	Open
55	Characterisation of high power anode materials	Peter Slater and Lizzie Driscoll	University of Birmingham	Open

Additionally there are four summer internships available at the Faraday Institution Head Quarters (FIHQ) in Harwell. Note these are separate to the FUSE internship programme. Find out more.