Launch of Batteries Europe – a new European Technology and Innovation Platform supported by Zabala

Driven by the shared ambition of making Europe a major stakeholder in the global battery sector the European Battery Alliance (EBA), launched on October 11th 2017 by Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in charge of the Energy Union, has been created to reinforce and develop a sustainable European battery ecosystem covering the entire battery value chain.

The European Technology & Innovation Platform (ETIP) on batteries, named BatteRIes Europe, is one of the actions of the Strategic Action Plan on Batteries, adopted by the European Commission in May 2018. It will move forward the work on batteries developed under the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan Action 7)[1] and the Strategic Transport Research and Innovation Agenda (STRIA)[2].

BatteRIes Europe will be the “one-stop shop” for the battery-related R&I in Europe. It will gather research, industry as well as representatives from several Commission Services and Member States in order to identify, prioritise and co-ordinate the main research and innovation needs for the whole battery value chain in Europe.

Similarly to the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Smart Networks in Energy Transition, also supported by Zabala, ETIP Batteries seeks to become the place where relevant stakeholders (Research community, Industrial actors, Commission services and Member States, -including their regional governments) will not only exchange and coordinate their efforts on Batteries R&I, but also mobilize resources to implement R&I activities in the field. Additionally:

• It will facilitate and encourage communications, between the many stakeholders and ensure synergies, with the result being greater than the sum of all individual efforts.
• It will provide the battery community with a forum to spearhead actions to execute the R&I priorities for batteries identified under the Strategic Energy Technology Plan among others, thereby accelerating the establishment of a globally competitive European battery industry.
• It will go beyond SET-Plan and STRIA boarders and will reach out to other pertinent research initiatives such as the Battery2030+ initiative, Interregional partnership on advanced battery materials, European Innovation Partnership on Raw materials, etc.

Batteries Europe has now opened a call for experts to contribute in one of the 6 Thematic Work Groups, as explained in the application form that you can download here: Expression of interes_BatteriesEurope_WGexperts. The call for expression of interest that is open until 16 June 2019 and should be sent to info@batterieseurope.eu, which is also available for other questions and/or interest.

If you are an active member of the European Battery ecosystem you are also invited to participate to the ETIP Batteries kick off meeting for which you can register for here.