Advancing Materials Innovation for Batteries and Supercapacitors: A joint EMPHASIS-INERRANT workshop in Athens, Greece

On 4 June, the two projects EMPHASIS and INERRANT came together in Athens, Greece for a joint hybrid workshop. Hosted by Pleione Energy, this cluster event aimed to foster collaboration between the two complementary projects working on advanced electrochemical energy storage technologies: EMPHASIS focusing on supercapacitors, and INERRANT on batteries.

The workshop opened with welcome remarks from Nasos Masouras (EMPHASIS, Pleione Energy) and Spyros Yannopoulos (INERRANT, FORTH), setting the stage for a rich exchange of knowledge and ideas. Over 30 participants joined both onsite and online, reflecting strong interest and commitment from both projects. EMPHASIS sister projects such us The Music project, Greencap and HEDAsupercap also joined the event remotely.

Sessions covered a wide range of topics, including materials processing and integration, testing and validation methods, policy frameworks, and sustainability aspects of energy storage technologies. „The event provided an excellent platform for partners to discuss common challenges, share insights, and identify potential synergies for joint research and innovation activities. It's critical to think beyond the individual project, and facilitate this kind of exchange to help shape and sustain a vibrant battery ecosystem in Europe“, said Sam Hoefman, INERRANT Project Manager at EURICE. Responsible for project management, outreach and exploitation activities in both projects, the EURICE team together with the colleagues of its sister company RISE, played a major role in pushing the workshop forward.

The get-together concluded with a roundtable discussion focusing on future collaboration opportunities, including joint publications and coordinated efforts to strengthen European leadership in advanced battery technologies.