Impact

NABLA is designed to deliver impact on the National and International levels. On the National level NABLA facilitates research and development activities in a rapidly growing field of high societal importance.

The infrastructure also facilitates a transition for battery manufacturing from Asian countries to Nordic European countries and from fossil energy economies to renewable energy economies.

Battery ecosystem: being a joined effort, NABLA brings together the top Norwegian actors in battery research. Such joined effort creates an intellectual ecosystem necessary for generation of new ideas, projects and intellectual property.

International scientific recognition

High-quality publications, patents and conferences will improve visibility of Norwegian research delivering the international recognition it deserves. The presence of state-of-the-art research capabilities proposed by NABLA and supported by relevant competence will make Norway an attractive destination for international collaboration and for scientists from abroad. The installation of NABLA infrastructure will also make Norwegian actors more attractive for funding opportunities outside Norway – such as Horizon Europe and others.

Education

A rapid growth of the battery-related industry resulted in extremely high demand of relevant specialists. Unfortunately, their number is quite limited and, therefore, training programs are required to deliver high-quality specialists at MS and PhD levels. NABLA plans to facilitate training of students and young researchers by exposing them to the state-of-the-art equipment and battery technologies. High quality of research conducted by NABLA partners will also attract motivated and talented students further improving the battery ecosystem. The involved educational partners (NTNU, UiA and UiO) are expected to increase their activities in the battery area, partly as a direct effect of these investments, becoming more attractive to prospective students.

Industrial support and growth

The rapidly developing battery industry requires not only high-quality specialists but also relevant R&D facilities. The installation of NABLA infrastructure, particularly Validation and Manufacturing TAs are designed to assist Norwegian industry. The facilities which will allow validation of materials in the conditions close to industrial did not exist in Norway before and all the materials produced in Norway were essentially tested abroad. Thus, establishing domestic opportunities will greatly help the local industry. Furthermore, as NABLA provides coverage across the value chain, not only materials’ producers (such as Elkem), but manufacturers (Beyonder, Freyr, Morrow, Hydro-Equinor-Panasonic initiative) will benefit from the proposed infrastructure.

Society

The main societal impact from the proposed infrastructure is increased visibility of research within battery technology, which will impact the societal awareness and knowledge around batteries educating general population about importance and yet complexity of battery technologies. As a part of socioeconomical impact NABLA addresses several UN Sustainable Development Goals.

While Quality Education is mainly directed towards developing countries, the immediate impact for Norway will be improved higher education within the field of battery technology which is so necessary for the future growth.

NABLA will also serve as a tool for boosting the development of battery technologies and promote implementation of batteries delivering affordable and clean energy solutions for transport and stationary energy storage.

The proposed infrastructure is designed to assist growing Norwegian battery-related industry goals for Decent Work and Economic Growth, and to develop and exert new innovations.

The accelerated implementation of batteries, assisted by NABLA, will also impact further development of more a sustainable society (Cities and Communities), NABLA’s technlologys in Manufacturing and Implementation greatly support Responsible Consumption and Production through optimization of manufacturing processes and recycling. Overall, through consideration of the complete battery manufacturing value chain, NABLA contributes to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions towards the goals on Climate Action.

Upon full realization of NABLA, the partners will increase their attractiveness to Norwegian industries by:

• Delivering a strong support in the fundamental knowledge within battery science.
• Expanding the existing characterization toolbox, to accommodate the new commercial advancements in the battery developments (for battery material developers/providers).
• Enabling the opportunities for the advanced evaluation and validation of Norwegian-developed materials in preproduction environment through electrode and cells fabrication (for battery material providers and cell producers).
• Enabling in-depth optimization studies of the different battery cell production process steps (for cell producers).
• Allowing for required testing of battery performance, lifetime and safety at cell and pack level, and at low and high voltage (for cell producers and integrators/users).
• Providing the opportunities for training of the future battery researchers necessary to meet the future battery technologies, materials and challenges.

Overall, NABLA national infrastructure will be at the forefront of battery R&D in Norway and will also assist Norwegian research to gain a more prominent position in the international battery community.