Election of the first Governing Board of BatteRIes Europe

The European Technology and Innovation Platform on Batteries, BatteRIes Europe, held its first General Assembly on 22 October in Brussels, Belgium. Following the launch of the platform in June, the day was dedicated to setting up the ground of the European initiative supported by the European Commission (DG ENER, DG RTD, DG CNECT, DG MOVE, JRC) that will shape the research ecosystem for batteries in Europe, through the election of its very first Governing Board.

After open Working Group meetings in the morning, the General Assembly took place in the afternoon, gathering more than 180 battery experts coming from the European industry and research; a total of 13 Member States were represented through their delegates to the National and Regional Coordinators Group. The project Secretariat and Working Group Chairs outlined the structure of the platform while the European Commission presented Important Projects of Common European Interest and the entire ecosystem of European funding initiatives for batteries. Attendees then voted on a list of more than 20 candidates to choose the group of nine people that will steer the work of BatteRIes Europe in the next year.

The final composition of the Governing Board, which mirrors the scope of the Working groups, is as follows:

• Chair: Michael Lippert – Saft
• Vice-Chair for Research and Innovation: Paolo Cerruti – Northvolt
• Vice-Chair for Manufacturing: Tobias Lösche-ter Horst – Volkswagen
• Future and Emerging Technologies: Rosa Palacin Peiro – Spanish National Research Council
• Raw Materials and Recycling: Jarkko Hakkarainen – Outotec
• Advanced Materials: Kurt Vandeputte – Umicore
• Cell Design and Manufacturing: Stefano Saguatti – Manz Italy
• Mobile Applications: Matthias Brendel – AVL List
• Stationary Applications: Etienne Briere – EDF

The Secretariat of BatteRIes Europe looks forward to working side by side with the newly elected Governing Board and the new Director-General for Energy, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, making batteries an important piece of the European Green Deal.

About BatteRIes Europe:

Batteries Europe – the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Batteries – aims at driving research and innovation, knowledge transfer and competitiveness across the European battery value chain. InnoEnergy together with the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) have been appointed to lead the platform. They are supported by project partners Zabala and Clerens Consulting.