Workstream Bodies
Cross-Cutting Task Forces
The Task Forces on cross-cutting issues will facilitate the collaboration between the working groups’ members in non-technical thematic areas that are transversal to the entire value chain. The aim of the Task Forces is to discuss the main challenges in these areas and provide recommendations and support to the workstream of the Working Groups, taking into account their specific challenges and needs.
The established Task Forces in the domains of digitalisation, education and skills, safety, and sustainability will be further engaged and supported, comprising permanent structures of Batteries Europe. Two additional Task Forces will focus on the topics of “social science and humanities” and “standardisation and hybridisation” to address the increasing need for public engagement and hybridization of battery solutions with other technologies.
The flexible structure of these Task Forces will allow for repurposing their scope based on the needs of the batteries’ ecosystem. Similarly, to the Working Groups, all Task Forces will operate in coordination and synchronicity with the European Partnership BATT4EU, to avoid overlaps and create synergies among different stakeholders.
The Batteries Europe Task Force on Digitalisation aims to identify challenges and opportunities related to digital technologies for the battery value chain. It focuses on topics from discovery to end of life, assessing and evaluating the state-of-the-art of the currently available digital technologies and the benefits their further development can bring.
Digitalisation Task Force – Position Paper
Technical leader: Christoph Grzershik
This Task Force focuses on the needs of the battery value chain in terms of education and skills for its workforce. This is critical in an industry which is constantly evolving and with ambitious goals for growth. Europe needs to both grow the pool of talent and equip the workforce for new jobs to grow this industry sustainably. This Task Forces focuses on core technical knowledge and skills needed for battery manufacturing, targeting both higher and lower levels of education and younger students. The focus is on the analysis of the present situation and a set of recommended actions needed to make Europe ready for competitiveness in 2030. The group is comprised of an impressive mix of membership from industry, academia and the training sector. Key focus areas of the Task Force are:
- Shaping the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda with a strong focus on education and skills.
- Publishing a new updated position paper on this important topic, ensuring that the insights are current.
Education and Skills Task Force – Position Paper
Task Leader: Dimitra Maleka (EIT InnoEnergy)
The intention of this Task Force is to identify safety-related aspects across the entire battery value chain from materials level up to Pack and System level; work on the identification of potential hazards and failure modes, and develop strategies on prevention and mitigation of risks. The Task Force contemplates challenges like comprehensive design of new materials which lead to improve cyclability and operational lifetime, enhanced safety behaviour whilst maintaining competitive performance; enabling implementation of smart functionalities to advance safe operations; and combining digitalization, automatization, artificial intelligence and multi-physical modelling. All, with the objective of understanding and describing the impact of operational loads, failure modes, degradation, ageing and mis-use on battery reliability and safety.
Safety Task Force – Position Paper
Task Leader: Roberto Pacios (CIC energiUNE)
The Batteries Europe Task-Force on Sustainability aims at defining the key sustainability aspects that need to be taken into account across the whole battery value chain, defining the main sustainability requirements in terms of Economic sustainability (lack of raw materials, EU independence, regulatory aspects, etc), social sustainability (workers’ rights, jobs, social life cycle assessment, etc) and Environmental sustainability (use of hazardous materials, recycling, life cycle assessment, etc).
Sustainability Task Force – Position Paper
Task Leader: Eliana Quartarone (UNIPV)
The aim of this Task Force is to use methods from the Social Sciences and Humanities research domains to understand and to communicate the social reality complexities associated with batteries and promote the STEM disciplines. It will cover the processes across an entire batteries’ supply chain and will put a strong focus on the battery use part, exploring enablers and obstacles of social acceptance among different groups of users, and reaching out to civil society and citizens through open consultations.
Social Sciences and Humanities Task Force – Position Paper
Task Leader: Spyridon Pantelis (EERA)
This Task Force will facilitate knowledge exchange activities (e.g. meetings, workshops etc.) between Batteries Europe and the ecosystem of experts and research infrastructure for energy storage technologies developed in the StoRIES project.
Standardisation and Hybridisation Task Force – Position Paper
Task Leader: Edel Sheridan (SINTEF)
To join any of the above-mentioned Cross-Cutting Task Forces as an expert, please fill out the registration form here.