Proposals are expected to contribute to the generation of innovative battery concepts to safeguard future European competitiveness through innovative battery advanced materials and technologies contributing to green energy usage through enhanced energy storage and management capabilities.

Depending on the areas listed in the scope, proposals are expected to cover all the respective bullet points:

Area A: Development and validation of low-cost battery chemistries particularly suited for electric mobility supporting a reliable and flexible energy flow to meet fluctuating demand by enabling better integration of diverse energy sources:

• Proposals are expected to provide the state-of-the-art benchmark for the performance of Design-to-Performance lithium-ion batteries^[1] and sodium-ion batteries and compare the project’s improvements of performance targets to said benchmark.
• Main component (active and main inactive materials) cost of below €35 per kWh

OR

Area B: Development of high-performance battery, particularly suited for aviation and high-performance mobility boosting green energy adoption by leveraging advanced energy carriers and storage solutions to support demanding applications:

• Validation of advanced battery concepts achieving energy density exceeding 500 Wh/kg and/or Power density exceeding the state-of-the-art benchmark based on the selected application(s).

OR

Area C: Development of durable and reliable battery advanced materials and cell-level concepts specifically suited to stationary storage for either grid and/or energy-intensive industry applications.

Scope:

Projects are expected to contribute to one of the following battery concepts that meet different end-user needs and applications, going beyond state-of-the-art:

Area A: Low-cost batteries designed primarily for passenger electric vehicles and/or stationary storage:

• Development of battery chemistries utilizing minimised amount of Critical Raw Materials
• Cost reduction through use of smart functionalities, as well as lightweight, functionalised and/or simplified casing or cooling concepts etc is encouraged.

OR

Area B: High-performance battery chemistries intended for applications requiring superior energy density, power density, and safety standards, such as aviation and maritime sectors:

• Innovative approaches to battery structural integration and multifunctional materials to significantly boost gravimetric and volumetric performance.

OR

Area C: Novel battery advanced materials and cell-level concepts, for stationary energy storage for grid storage and/or energy-intensive industrial applications:

• If applied for grid storage, solutions should demonstrate potential for cost-effective integration at system level (targeting system-level cost below €50/kWh) and provide support for multi-hour storage durations to enhance renewable energy uptake and grid flexibility.
• If applied for energy-intensive industrial applications, battery materials and designs should address continuous high-load operation, cycling under harsh conditions, and reliability over long operational periods, contributing to the electrification and decarbonisation of specific industrial processes under study.

All projects are expected to provide an assessment on all following aspects:

• Scalability potential, manufacturability, and market relevance.
• Solutions for extended cycle life, cost-efficient recyclability, and sustainability by design (implementing Safe and Sustainable by Design principles)
• Solutions for enhanced safety, thermal management, performance monitoring, and predictive diagnostics.

The Safe and Sustainable by Design^[2] (SSbD) framework should be considered as a reference for project proposals to guide the innovation process towards safer and more sustainable chemicals and advanced materials.

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC)^[3] whose contribution could consist of performing experimental or desk-top research on battery performance or safety. For further information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the projects, please, search for additional publicly available information on the JRC’s website^[4] (EU Science Hub) on the NCP portal, or request specific information from the JRC (JRC-NCP-Network@ec.europa.eu)

JRC will assure that all the other applicants receive the same information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the project (e.g., via the topic-specific FAQs under the Funding and Tenders Portal).

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU) and the co-programmed Partnership Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU (IAM4EU). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU) and IAM4EUin support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

This topic contributes to the industrial action plan for the automotive sector.

[1] https://bepassociation.eu/our-work/sria/

[2] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/chemicals-and-advanced-materials_en

[3] https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/laboratories-z/battery-energy-storage-testing_en

[4] JRC NCP | Horizon Europe NCP Portal