It’s conference season! Issy attended the Faraday Institution Conference 2023 this September, and we bring you a flavour of the three days and the chance to hear some of the delegate’s thoughts directly.
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s research institution to further battery research. Since its creation in 2017, it has been responsible for a thriving ecosystem of projects within academia and industry, as well as an interlinked community of individuals and organisations all over the UK and abroad. It funds PhD programmes, undergraduate summer internships, and many research and industry projects within the UK.
There hasn’t been a big Faraday Institution Conference since 2019, so it was with great excitement that the community arrived at the University of Birmingham on 11 September 2023, ready to learn, listen, and connect with friends old and new.
This year, the theme was “Driving towards sustainable electrification of the UK” which came across strongly in the 9 different sessions that covered everything from battery characterisation, and building supply chains within the UK, to metrology and recycling.
Opened by Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, and closed by the Leader of Birmingham City Council, it was a conference that highlighted not only research but also the more holistic importance of the work the Faraday Institution does in the UK, as a key push of the technology to help the global transition away from fossil fuels and create new jobs and opportunity.
Two very nice evening events in historic spaces: the University of Birmingham Great Hall, and the Birmingham Council House, were greatly enjoyed by all. I personally chatted with so many interesting people and came away feeling energised and excited about the future of the battery community.
There was such a wide variety of expertise and research at the conference, and I was really interested to get some thoughts about what excited different people and also their views of the biggest challenges facing us. I chatted with:
Alex Groombridge, Cofounder and CTO at Echion Technologies
Daisy Thornton, Cell Degradation Engineer at Rimac Energy
Gyen Ming Angel, General Manager at Prosemino
Fran Long, Head of Training and Talent Development at The Faraday Institution
Jess Roberts, Head of Forecasting at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence
Sarah Colbourn, Senior Analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence
Beatrice Browning, PhD Researcher at The Faraday Institution
Chris Moore, Partner at HGF Limited
🔋 Key takeaways
sustainability is key and mining and critical raw materials is a hot topic
scale up is a challenge for everything from manufacturing to degradation understanding
getting in talent is a priority for each and every part of the supply chain in batteries - from mining all the way to recycling
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Flavours of Faraday 2023