Our call for abstracts has now closed.

Submission Guidelines and Eligibility

Abstracts are invited from any researcher active in the field of energy storage, (whether directly working on a Faraday Institution project or not), working in either academia or industry. Abstracts are invited from all career stages.

Oral Presentations

Each conference session offers one Early Career Researcher selected talk slot. A further two selected talk slots are available per session for independent researchers/academics and senior representatives from industry. Selected talks will be 15 minutes long with 5 minutes reserved for Q&A.

Poster Presentations

Our conference venue allows enough space to showcase up to 200 posters. Posters will be held in the same room at the East Midlands Conference Centre and ordered by theme. Successful poster applicants will be expected to bring their poster in-person and also send a digital version in advance to be added to the conference app for registered delegates to access. Poster prizes will be available.

Welcoming expressions of interest from all sections of the community

We particularly welcome applications from women, who were under-represented in the EOI submissions at previous conferences, as well as those from ethnic minority groups, who typically are under-represented in STEM fields. We endeavour to foster diversity in all its forms, including career stage and specific areas of expertise, to represent the broadest collection of voices and ideas.

What to expect

Submit an abstract and set yourself up to be an active participant in the Faraday Institution’s largest science dissemination and networking event to date. This will be a large-scale event; we’re expecting over 500 delegates. The event will bring together the community of UK academics, industry organisations, policy makers and funders to disseminate battery research and raise the visibility of UK scientific excellence in energy storage.

The conference will be structured to facilitate networking, collaboration and partnership and develop shared understanding of industry challenges and the academic research underway that will deliver advances in underpinning science and engineering to meet those challenges.

Researchers are reminded that this will be an open forum: No confidential information should be included in the abstract submissions, or the posters/talks selected.

Abstracts will be reviewed by members of the conference Scientific Programme Board as well as invited external members in two stages:
1) First, abstract submissions will be blind-scored by individual reviewers allocated to certain themes.
2) Secondly, the submissions in their entirety become available to view and are discussed and ranked by review panels before making final selections.

Guidance for making a successful application

We recommend using the following structure for your abstract:

• Lead with the problem, not the method | Open with a specific, high-impact challenge in battery science (e.g. energy density limits, degradation mechanisms, safety, sustainability).
• State what’s new – early and explicitly | Within the first 2–3 sentences, clearly say what is novel about your work (new chemistry, mechanism, diagnostic, model, or performance benchmark).
• Quantify wherever possible | Include concrete metrics (e.g. % improvement, cycle life, energy density, rate capability, error reduction) and how it compared to the state-of-the-art.
• Explain the insight, not just the result | Emphasise what we learned (mechanism, principle, structure–property relationship), not only what improved. What will the audience learn? End with what the audience will gain (e.g. a new framework, design rule, diagnostic tool, or perspective on an open challenge).
• Show why it matters beyond your system | Briefly connect your findings to broader implications: scalability, manufacturability, safety, sustainability, or relevance to other battery chemistries.
• Evaluate the scope and maturity | Clearly signal whether this is fundamental, applied, or pre-commercial work.

Judges will be looking for the above and will score based on following criteria:

Quality of science / research vision

• How good is the science? Is it novel?
• Is there sufficient scientific explanation?
• Is this world class/competitive science that pushes the boundaries internationally? How collaborative is the research?
• Is it clear what results have been achieved & what will be presented?
• How ambitious, innovative and appropriate is the approach or the methods being used?

Research goal and potential impact

• Does the submission articulate the individual or programme research goals?
• Does the submission articulate how the research links to industry needs or potential user benefits (for example to, cost, recyclability, energy density, power density, safety, lifetime, operating temperature range, predictability of SOH, SOC, mitigating fast charging damage etc.)
• What is the impact or potential impact of the research (to scientific knowledge, a path to commercialisation, to industry organisations involved, and/or the economy or policy).

Bursary Application

To make the Faraday Institution Conference accessible to as many UK-based early career researchers as possible, we will be offering a number of bursaries for postgraduate students based at UK academic institutions.

Students awarded a bursary will have their conference fee (including conference dinner) waived. Travel and accommodation costs will not be covered.

Eligibility for Bursary Application

• Bursaries are available to current postgraduate (PhD or MSc/MRes) students, who are not directly funded on a Faraday Institution project.
• Applicants must be based at a UK academic institution.
• PhD researchers currently funded on a Faraday Institution project have their own training budget for conference attendance, which should be used, and so are not eligible for a conference bursary.
• Undergraduate students are not eligible for this award.
• Bursary applicants must submit an abstract to present a poster or presentation at the conference. Bursaries will only be awarded to those researchers who have their abstract accepted.

Please apply for a bursary at the same time as submitting an expression of interest to present at the conference.

As part of the expression of interest process please provide a short paragraph summary covering the following:

• Confirmation that you are not funded on a Faraday Institution grant
• Make the case for funding, i.e., confirm there is no alternative/institutional funding available to attend the conference
• Outline reasons why you should attend/present at this particular conference
• You must also provide your Supervisor’s contact details where prompted

No single institution will be eligible for more than three bursary awards.

The timetable for applications and notification of success is the same for bursary applications and the expression of interest.

Expression of interest submission deadline