AMBIC — A national centre to scale up your battery innovations

As governments around the world target net-zero emissions, we must transition from our current reliance on fossil-fuel-derived energy towards cleaner alternatives.

Battery technologies, whether in electric vehicles (EVs) or as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), will form a critical part of the solution. There are several reasons why these technologies haven’t fully replaced their fossil fuel alternatives yet, including long-term stability, manufacturing challenges, and cost.

That’s where the Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC) comes in.

The centre helps innovators accelerate development of battery technologies needed for the energy transition. Bridging the gap between lab innovations and scalable, market-ready products, it addresses persistent bottlenecks in battery manufacturing to speed up the journey from materials discovery to battery prototyping. 

AMBIC – launched in June 2025 – is an open-access facility focused on existing and next-generation battery materials with the goal of accelerating material innovations time to market. 

An end-to-end solution for the UK battery industry

AMBIC was announced in November 2023 following a £12 million investment from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Faraday Battery Challenge, administered through Innovate UK. The centre now serves as a world-class capability, providing a single, integrated solution for battery development that will de-risk development of battery technologies and supply chains. 

To do this, it brings together the specific battery materials expertise of CPI’s National Formulation Centre in County Durham and WMG, University of Warwick in Coventry, both of which are part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC).

We’re applying our existing knowledge, skills and experience in process chemistry and engineering to battery materials synthesis and screening, as well as nurturing the development of the future workforce in the UK battery industry. 

AMBIC’s comprehensive approach aims to revolutionise energy storage by advancing the development and production of innovative battery materials and cells, driving sustainable solutions for a cleaner, more efficient future. 

A centre with unique capabilities

Critical technical barriers — such as extending battery life, increasing energy density, or improving charging efficiency — are related to both the battery materials and the battery cell design. The interrelation of numerous factors makes it challenging to identify a route from innovative material to high performance battery. This is compounded by the lack of infrastructure to scale promising materials and integrate them into prototype cells for real-world application. This centre removes those barriers by providing access to scale-up equipment and fostering a collaborative ecosystem with industry partners and research communities. 

At CPI, our primary focus is on the development of materials such as lithium-ion and sodium-ion cathodes, and solid-state electrolytes, among other inorganic materials. Equipment within the AMBIC facility will enable processing of multi-kg batches of materials, relying on processes such as co-precipitation, dry and wet milling, powder drying/​blending and calcination under controlled atmospheres. Customers and collaborators have the ability to work flexibly, using equipment in any order and any combination. This is all supported by CPI’s process chemistry expertise, which enables efficient scaling from gram to 10s of kg batches. 

A unique feature of the AMBIC facility is that much of the synthesis equipment allows process data collection in real time, via techniques such as soft sensors, that can be used to build up significant information about the process scale-up and improve quality control. This can be combined with AI and machine learning approaches to enable the potential for building predictive and process models with the aim of progressing innovations rapidly to commercial production scale. 

With sufficient batch size produced by CPI, the materials can be transferred to WMG, a partner in the AMBIC facility, to be validated in industrially relevant cell formats – such as pouch or cylindrical – using their state-of-the-art coater and calender systems. The ability to produce up to 100 cells demonstrates the commercial viability and allows companies to take the next step towards commercialisation. 

Boosting your battery projects

In our aim to supercharge the UK battery manufacturing landscape, we are excited to be able to support any size of customer or project; from academia to SMEs to large corporates. Here are some examples of the support AMBIC will offer: 

• An SME that wants to understand how a novel cathode material will affect their battery cell technology. 

• A company looking to validate their raw material in active material manufacture. 

• A research group looking to demonstrate the scalability of their novel material. 

• A company screening bespoke materials, e.g., with variable dopants or particle size, so they can get a comprehensive understanding of the effect on their cell technology. 

AMBIC’s aim in providing access to this type of support is to accelerate the development and commercialisation of high-performance, cost-effective battery materials and cells, thereby enabling the net zero transition and supporting growth in the battery ecosystem. 

Discover how AMBIC can help your battery technology become a commercial reality.