Results:

The Faraday Institution has developed an analytical methodology to assess early-stage commercialisation potential for each of its research projects. The assessment results in a bespoke approach to commercialisation tailored to each project, the prioritisation of limited resources and the development of consortia that are investment ready. The approach can be implemented by any organisation with limited resources and a portfolio of research projects.

A rapidly growing market for batteries across the globe has intensified pressures on suppliers of cobalt to meet surges in demand. Such pressures have impacted the livelihoods of miners - in particular, those working in the Democratic Republic of Congo's artisanal and small-scale mines - in both beneficial and potentially deleterious ways. International efforts by businesses, governments, and NGOs to secure a responsible supply chain for cobalt have the potential to protect lives and livelihoods while ensuring corrupt practices are held in check.

Low-carbon energy technologies such as ammonia, batteries, e-fuels, biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells are rapidly gaining traction in the maritime industry. Heavy fuel oil will soon no longer be the primary choice for propulsion. Battery technology is an important part of the mix, offering energy efficiency, reduced emissions and improved performance for smaller vessels, with hybrid solutions emerging for longer distances and international shipping. The UK can be at the forefront of these developments but must invest in port and charging infrastructure. The global maritime industry facilitates the movement of goods, people and resources across oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and inland waterways. The industry encompasses navigation, shipping and marine engineering and utilises a wide range of vessels for specific sub-markets. With over 80% of global trade by volume transported by sea, the maritime industry is a critical component of the global economy. However, the maritime industry is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels to power ships and is considered a hard-to-abate sector. The International Maritime Organisation aims to reduce carbon emissions in the sector by 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 levels. This insight explores the alternative technologies for the maritime sector, including hydrogen, natural gas, battery-electric propulsion and other low-carbon fuels, and assesses the size of the battery-powered maritime market. The specific performance characteristics of battery technology for different applications across the maritime sector are outlined, and proposed actions to develop and support the UK maritime industry are also highlighted.

The government has five national missions, to:

Kickstart Economic Growth

Build an NHS Fit for the Future

Safer Streets

Break Down the Barriers to Opportunity

Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) leads on the government's mission to Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower, working in close collaboration with other departments (see Section 1.1.3).

Research, development, and innovation (hereafter 'R&D') are critical enablers for achieving both pillars of the Clean Energy Superpower Mission (CESM): delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero by 2050. They provide the robust scientific evidence base for policy decisions and delivery, enable the successful innovation and scaling up of necessary technologies, and enhance productivity and economic growth. As estimated by the International Energy Agency, approximately 35% of the global emission reductions needed in 2050 to reach net zero rely on technologies that are not yet commercially available.

Areas of Research Interest documents (ARIs) set out research questions and evidence needs of government organisations. They are a key tool for shaping the research landscape - helping to align academic, industry, and public sector efforts with government priorities. This ARI document sets out the R&D needed to deliver the CESM, based on cross-government consensus. It captures the breadth of challenges and opportunities across both mission pillars and seeks to encourage more structured dialogue and collaboration with external stakeholders.

This ARI document is intended to support collaboration between government, academia, industry, and other research organisations. It sets out both the full thematic breadth of research areas relevant to the CESM and a focused set of priority R&D challenges where coordinated effort is most urgently required. Together, these provide a strategic framework to guide research investment, shape funding programmes, and inform policy development.

It can be used to:

Align research proposals with government priorities and identify areas of high impact.

Support dialogue between researchers and policymakers on emerging evidence needs.

Inform funding decisions by enabling researchers to clearly link proposals to government priorities.

Guide cross-sector collaboration by highlighting shared challenges and opportunities.

This ARI has been intentionally developed at a strategic level. While it captures the full breadth of research areas relevant to the mission, it does not aim to provide detailed R&D requirements. Instead, it offers directional guidance on the research considered most valuable at the time of assessment, rather than an exhaustive specification. As part of our future plan, we will define what success looks like and develop approaches to measure progress.

National infrastructures, such as energy, water, and transport systems, are critical to society. Exploring the effect of investments in infrastructure is an active area of research with a high impact on the well-being of the UK. Data is an essential pre-requisite for good analysis and good decision making, but there are many barriers to the effective use of data. Data Infrastructure for National Infrastructure (DINI) is a pilot study within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's UK Research Data Cloud Pilot programme. Its aim is to explore the potential of data to drive research and its impact on policy. Our scope is National Infrastructure Systems within the UK with a focus on energy, water and transport. The project was coordinated by the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure, working with the Energy Data Centre and the JASMIN Facility, with contributions from Icebreaker One, the Digital Curation Centre, and the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities. This report summarises the outcomes of the DINI pilot project. It begins by presenting the vision for DINI and providing a statement of the major action proposed from the work of the project. The report then gives a summary of the major results of the project, discussing the background of research in infrastructure systems engineering, and characterising the use of data in this area. The main results of the landscaping work of the pilot study are given next, including the research benefits, benefits to non-research partners, and the wider benefits to society. The barriers involving legal, security, commercial, cultural and technical themes are discussed, with a summary of the major barriers in each area being presented. The work of the technical design studies are then discussed, with the report concluding with its 16 recommendations based on how to form a research data cloud to support infrastructure systems engineering.

This insight outlines the size of the global recycling market, the key recycling processes and the economics of battery recycling, particularly the challenges involved in retaining the value of recycled materials. Developments in the UK and European recycling industry along with the opportunities and challenges for the UK to establish itself as a leading battery recycling location are also highlighted.

Ending UK sales of new vehicles running on diesel and petrol by 2030 will massively increase the demand for lithium, cobalt and nickel used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. Many countries around the world are embarking on a similar path to electrification. Even so, global markets for raw materials should be able to deliver the demand in the UK and elsewhere. But action is needed now to iron out likely bottlenecks in supply chains.

The fifth and latest generation of mobile network (5G) has been widely heralded as a green technology with the capacity to drastically improve the energy efficiency of mobile networks and enable energy and emissions savings across other areas of economic and social life.

A recent study by CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds (Garvey et al., 2022), investigating how to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the steel sector, found that:Technological solutions alone will not be enough to reach net-zero; material efficiency will also be necessary. Our analysis suggests that radical retrofit combined with action on material efficiency could contribute to achieving the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) further ambition steel sector carbon budget.Of the technological solutions, we found that retrofit could have the most potential in the short term, followed by new best practice efficiency technology, fuel shifts, and the implementation of novel technologies in the long term, depending on the availability of breakthrough technologies. Under some scenarios, carbon capture and storage (CCS) may be required, but material efficiency can offer the potential to reduce the need for reliance on such technology.Early action in the implementation of measures is required for more significant emissions reductions. To achieve this, a clear vision in the form of sectoral budgets and government leadership is necessary

New technologies and a skilled workforce are both essential to meet the challenge of net carbon zero. To ensure the UK is ready for the transition, a new skills framework has been created by WMG - University of Warwick, The Faraday Institution and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

Electric vehicles (EVs) have much lower life cycle carbon emissions than petrol and diesel vehicles using internal combustion engines (ICE). Carbon emissions over the EV life cycle are falling fast as the UK electricity grid is decarbonised and the UK moves towards Net Zero. Total life cycle carbon emissions of a medium-sized battery EV will be about one-quarter of a petrol car sold in 2025, with UK-manufactured EV batteries 12% greener than the European average.