22.09.2025

Currently staying at the University of Oxford for his one-year sabbatical leave, Prof. Odne Burheim makes comparisons between FME BATTERY and the Faraday Institution.

“The Faraday Institution in many ways serves a similar role in the UK as FME BATTERY does in Norway”, says Prof. Odne Burheim. He explains that the Faraday Institution appears as something in between an FME centre and the research council, in that it is lead partly by universities and at the same time is a separate organisation that distributes research funding handed down by the government. 

Some of the key universities of the Faraday Institution are also key international partners in FME BATTERY. Professors at Imperial College of London, University of Warwick, and University of Oxford all have special roles within FME BATTERY. 

Important to build relations with non-EU countries

“Building stronger relations to these non-EU country research partners should benefit the Norwegian battery ecosystem in the years ahead,” says Prof. Burheim. “As the Faraday Institution has annual budget 20-30 times FME BATTERY’s, they naturally have activities that are more diverse and as well as also supported by the most advanced equipment on every topics”, he says.   

“Naturally, the capacity of a population over ten times that of Norway, they should also have capacity to deliver the most sophisticated quality in more areas,” says Prof. Burheim. “It is therefore important for a country as Norway to select world class level in a narrower selection of topics and then bridge this with larger communities, like the Faraday Insitution’s partners.” He explains that this is in order to excel and expand Norwegian capacities in ways that are mutually benign for all parties. Meeting and discuss, like in this instance in the UK, is therefore of importance to the community back home.

Burheim at the prestigious University of Oxford

During the academic year of 2025-26, Professor Odne Burheim (dep. dir. FME BATTERY), selected University of Oxford (located between Imperial and Warwick) as location for a work exchange or sabbatical year, as to strengthen these relations. It is with Prof. Paul Shearing and with support from the research council of Norway, that he has base in the UK during this year. Starting this stay with the annual conference of the Faraday Institution was therefore a good opening to meet and connect for the coming year. Comparing and bridging with the UK communities is important for the Norwegian community.  

 “It is interesting to see how we focus on many similar things, anchored in different background and relations,” says Prof. Burheim.   “Given the much larger capacity of the Faraday Institution, the activities are naturally also more distributed, like for example studies of powder based dry electrode manufacturing or microbial battery recycling.” 

Bringing Norway and the UK battery research closer together

Assoc. Professor David Hall (UiS) is WP3 lead in FME BATTERY (see Centre Management). While working at University of Cambridge, before starting as Assoc. Prof. at the University of Stavanger (UiS), he was engaged in several management tasks of the Faraday Institution, and naturally so he is very well connected in this programme. In setting up the FME BATTERY, as well as bridging further during networking at this conference, he has been a key in bringing Norway and the UK battery research communities closer together.

 “The efforts, like those of Prof. Hall, in lifting Norway forward and into world class communities of the UK is extremely important for little Norway,” says Prof. Burheim.

Professors Louis Piper was chair at this conference, and his department, Warwick Manufacturing Group (Uni. of Warwick), was also the host of the event. Many might remember him from the FME BATTERY kick-off meeting in January 2025.