Attended by over 500 delegates, the Faraday Institution Conference 2024 brought together the Energy Storage community of academics, industry organisations, policymakers and funders from the UK and around the world.

Based around the theme of ‘The Battery Breakthrough: From Research, to Scale-up, to Manufacturing’, the three-day event highlighted the latest battery storage research from around the world. It helped to raise the visibility of UK scientific excellence in energy storage against the backdrop of Newcastle and the North East of England’s drive towards net zero emissions through vehicle and battery manufacturing, research and electrification.

The conference featured multiple parallel sessions, poster presentations, exhibition stands, and networking opportunities.

Professor Colin Herron CBE, Newcastle University and Faraday Institution North East office, said: “The North East is a critical research and industrial strength area in batteries. Newcastle University are the only regional office in the UK for the Faraday Institution, integrating and cementing the region’s battery ecosystem within the national image.

“At Newcastle University, we have pioneering research projects which are at the very forefront of the green revolution, where expertise is influencing policymakers and governments.”

The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation.

Professor Martin Freer, CEO, Faraday Institution, said: “Enormous thanks to Newcastle University for hosting such an excellent conference. The scientific programme board, led by Professor Mohamed Mamlouk, shaped an interesting and diverse programme that showcased some of the best battery research from the UK and internationally. The venues, social events and event management exceeded our expectations in facilitating networking, collaboration and partnership and left the community feeling extremely energised - thanks to the Local Organising Committee chaired by Professor Colin Herron.”

Faraday Institution Conference 2024 Poster Winners

The annual conference celebrated four poster prize winners, recognised for the exceptional quality and impact of their research.

The winners are:

• Prize for Research Progress & Findings: Sam Hare, University of Birmingham
• Prize for Scientific Content: Veronika Šedajová, University of Cambridge
• Prize for Industrial Context: Gwen Chimonides, University of Sheffield
• Prize for Communication and Audience Engagement: Liam Bird, University of Oxford

Collaboration Award

Another highlight of the conference was announcing the Faraday Institution Community Awards 2024 at the Conference Dinner in the Newcastle Civic Centre. For example, the Collaboration Award, which was presented to the University of Birmingham and Echion Technologies. The winners were praised for the outstanding academic-industrial partnership, led by Professor Peter Slater, which has achieved significant progress in developing new anode materials for high-power lithium-ion batteries. Read more about the awards.

Save the dates for the 2025 Faraday Institution Conference (to be hosted by the University of Warwick): 9-11^th September 2025.