IEA EGRD Workshop: Scaling battery Eecosystems - Evaluating R,D & E priorities to overcome gigafactory build-out bottlenecks

The IEA Experts Group on R&D Priority-Setting and Evaluation (EGRD) organises a Workshop on "Scaling Battery Ecosystems: Evaluating R, D & E Priorities to Overcome Gigafactory Build-Out Bottlenecks". This two-day event will take place on 4 and 5 November 2026, in Birmingham, United Kingdom. This Event is hosted by the Faraday Institute.

This workshop, organised under the analytical framework of the IEA Experts' Group on R&D Priority Setting and Evaluation (EGRD), brings together global economists, policy architects, raw material analysts, and industrial strategists. The goal is to perform a rigorous evaluation of the R&D priority-setting frameworks and policy interventions required to accelerate Western manufacturing capabilities. Over two days, delegates will dissect the economic and physical constraints of gigafactory build-outs, examine the implications of impending Rules of Origin (RoO) and battery passport tracing regimes, and evaluate standard methodologies to close the global competitiveness gap.

The sessions will systematically analyse why Western gigafactories are struggling to transition from pipeline announcements to active, cost-competitive commercial production. The scope focuses on the operational levers available to government and industry: aggregating OEM demand, establishing resilient localized supply routes for active materials, modernizing energy intensive industry (EII) support frameworks, and building scalable circular lifecycles. The ultimate objective is to provide the IEA network with actionable, evidence-based criteria to guide public funding toward high-yield manufacturing scales, process automation, and next-generation chemical commercialisation.