Establishing research and commercialisation directions

At a research programme level, the Fortescue WAE/Faraday Institution relationship is mutually beneficial and wide reaching. WAE’s presence at the Expert Panel helps to ensure the Faraday Institution’s research portfolio is focused on industry need. In turn, Fortescue WAE benefits from knowledge transfer opportunities and access to the researcher network.

Timeline

As tagged expert panel for the modelling project Rob Millar’s monthly input is invaluable in ensuring the project retains its industry relevance. But his input extends much beyond that, to safety, to new chemistries and beyond, to inform the strategic direction of our entire portfolio of research. In turn, knowledge transfer from Faraday Institution researchers is helping to shaping Fortescue WAE products such as Elysia Battery Intelligence.”
James Gaade, Research Programme Director, Faraday Institution

Fortescue WAE is a world class battery development company that is highly engaged with the Faraday Institution on multiple research topic areas, from pack design to thermal insulating materials to development of new battery chemistries. It’s the type of relationship where we can informally reach out to each other to validate our thinking. Having this type of sounding board is indispensable.”
Ian Ellerington, Technology Transfer Director, Faraday Institution

Collaborative research projects

The mechanisms that enable collaborative research projects between the two organisations are wide ranging from Faraday Institution-funded Industry Sprints, Seed Projects and Industry Fellowships to more informal collaborations that evolve from existing relationships. Strong collaborative links have also been formed between Faraday Institution researchers and Fortescue WAE as part of Faraday Battery Challenge Innovate UK collaborative R&D projects such as WIZer. Here expertise and knowledge from the Multi-scale Modelling project researchers helped WAE develop a new approach to battery management systems, which formed the basis of the launch in April 2023 of the Elysia Battery Intelligence System serving automotive manufacturers, battery asset financiers and fleet operators.

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Key

Working with Fortescue WAE has been immensely productive for my team (with 10+ publications from WIZer) and ensured we are applying our skills to solve actual problems that industry faces. Having regular contact with Fortescue WAE, and especially with the team that later became Elysia, meant we could benefit from each other’s experience, often exchanging advice and data. Showcasing meaningful and mutually beneficial collaboration, we continued to work together beyond the end of the project – the last article published together is on a model that targets an industry need and provides a viable solution for battery state estimation.”
Dr Monica Marinescu, Imperial College London and Co-investigator on the Faraday Institution’s Multi-scale Modelling Project

The Faraday Institution and its research community have welcomed industry collaboration with a shared enthusiasm to address the barriers to battery electrification. They have been receptive to industry needs and understanding the R&D skills required. The FI collaboration has widened our network, giving us insight into the research/innovation happening across the UK, and facilitated conversations with the researchers and industry partners alike.”
Melissa He, Senior Engineer, Elysia Battery Intelligence from Fortescue WAE

Working with Fortescue WAE has enabled us to frame our research with an industrially relevant lens. Whilst a range of approaches and techniques are possible for battery diagnostics and control, balancing this with real-world practicalities through collaboration with WAE has helped us to make sure our research can easily be adopted by industry.”
Dr Billy Wu, Imperial College London, Industry Fellow, and co-investigator on the Multi-scale Modelling project

To be able to work with a company such as Fortescue WAE, who have extremely interesting problems to solve, gives the research we do a focus and provides the students and researchers a window into industry challenges and research that has real-world impact.”
Emma Kendrick, Professor of Energy Materials and the University of Birmingham, and co-investigator on multiple Faraday Institution projects

We’re really excited to be collaborating closely with Fortescue WAE’s Elysia product development team on the topic of battery modelling, which is core to developing advanced diagnostics algorithms. The partnership will give us access to Fortescue WAE’s broad expertise, understanding of user requirements, and rich test dataset. We will in return be able to demonstrate the advantages of using innovative modelling approaches, bridging between electrochemical and circuit models, to improve health and state estimation. On a personal level we also hugely enjoy working with the Elysia team and particularly appreciate their curiosity, openness, and eagerness to learn together with us.”
Professor David Howey, University of Oxford, and Co-investigator on the Multi-scale Modelling project

Fortescue WAE will provide cell and module test data, which the Imperial team will use as the basis for model validation. Additionally, model development will benefit from WAE’s technical knowledge and industrial experience in design for battery safety. Fortescue WAE is interested in the project’s outcome as, if successful, it has the potential to inform, accelerate and reduce costs associated with battery safety design processes.”
Dr Huizhi Wang, Imperial College London, comments about the seed project she is leading.

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Key

Leaders and participants explain the benefits of the collaboration:

The mutually beneficial partnership between Fortescue WAE and the Faraday Institution is effectively contributing to talent development for the battery sector. Industry tours inspire and provide insights, PhD internships give first-hand industry experience to academic researchers (with potential for future roles) and Fortescue WAE respresentation on a variety of key Faraday Institution panels ensures training and skills programmes are tailored to meet industry need.”
Francesca Long, Head of Education and Talent Development, Faraday Institution

From our experience, we’ve seen huge value from Faraday PhD interns as they can ramp up to productivity much faster than is typical. They bring transferable analytical skills and tend to ‘jump in the deep end’ with a high degree of independence. We’ve also seen a strong cultural fit between Faraday researchers and the Elysia development team in that we share a common vision, a culture of personal empowerment, and the fortitude to break new ground in the battery space.”
Tim Engstrom, Manager for Advanced Battery Technologies, Fortescue WAE

I thoroughly enjoyed the internship with Fortesue WAE. It was 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, former Faraday Institution PhD researcher and now Data Scientist at Fortescue WAE 

During my placement at Fortescue WAE, I was able to explore aspects of battery modelling that weren’t directly part of my PhD and learn from experts in the field. I gained experience of working in the battery industry and have made connections that will help me in my career after I graduate.”
Nicole Melzack, PhD Researcher

The Industry Fellowship between Imperial and Fortescue WAE that collaboratively published a critical review paper on battery lifetime extension supported me in securing my academic position.”
Dr Haijun Ruan, Assistant Professor of Battery Systems, Coventry University

Read more

Read more about how an Industry Fellowship between WAE and Imperial led to the go-to resource for companies seeking how to best use derating strategies to extend battery lifetime.

Read how PhD Researcher Jacob Dean’s internship at WAE led to a permanent job with the company.

Read the Faraday Battery Challenge Innovate UK case study on how the collaborative R&D project WIZer built the foundation for Elysia.

The Faraday Institution welcomes approaches at any time from UK-based companies that wish to become more integrated into Faraday Institution research projects and its community. Contact [email protected] in the first instance.

Case study published February 2024.