Echion & University of Birmingham win Faraday Award for Research Collaboration
Echion and the University of Birmingham, have been selected as the winners of the Collaboration Award at the Faraday Institution Community Awards 2024. The accolade, presented at the annual Faraday Institution Conference, recognised the collaboration between Echion and the University of Birmingham to advance the development of battery materials for high performance applications.
The Research Collaboration award, which was judged by a diverse panel of experts drawn from members of the Faraday Institution researcher community, acknowledges the success of the five-year collaboration, which has been led by Professor Peter Slater. The project has produced multiple successful patents and academic reports while contributing to the commercialisation of Echion’s innovative proprietary XNO® anode technology.
The award was presented at the Faraday Institution Conference, The Battery Breakthrough: From Research, to Scale-up, to Manufacturing, in Newcastle on 11th September, which was attended by over 500 delegates with the event delivered in partnership with Newcastle University.
Professor Peter Slater, Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, also welcomed the award: “Over five years into our partnership with Echion, we have seen the impact that collaboration can have to both bolster academic knowledge and progress towards commercialisation for a real-world product. Our work has brought together academics at many different career stages, forging connections with industry staff, to develop the skills and experiences to improve this crucial technology.”
Dr Alex Groombridge, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Echion, said: “The teams at Echion and Birmingham are delighted to receive this award from the Faraday Institution. We have been working closely over the years with the research groups at Birmingham with many successes, and I hope we have showcased how academic and industrial researchers can come together to push the boundaries at the forefront of battery materials. We look forward to continuing our highly collaborative approach.”
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation. It brings together research scientists and industry partners on commercially valuable projects to reduce battery cost, weight, and volume; improve performance and reliability; and develop whole-life strategies including recycling and reuse.
Dr Fiona Coomer, Research and Development Programme Manager at Echion, who was last year appointed to the Faraday Institution’s Training and Diversity Panel, was delighted with the award, saying: “Everyone at Echion is honoured to receive this recognition from the Faraday Institution. Our ongoing collaborations, both within academia and industry, have been central to our mission of developing innovative battery solutions. This award is not just for us but for all our partners that we have worked with to reach this point too.”
Echion also provides support to the Faraday Institution talent development initiatives by offering three-month internships to PhD researchers based at UK universities, working on energy storage. Internships can prove pivotal in defining career steps post PhD and build relationships that lead to future employment. For more information on the PhD internship initiative, visit faraday.ac.uk/career-development/phd-internship-programme.