Braga hosted the Battery Science and Innovation Forum, an event that brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and researchers from various institutions, including the University of Aveiro (UA), in May 2026.

The meeting, held at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), aimed to discuss advances in sustainable energy storage, new battery technologies, and the transition from laboratory research to real-world applications.

The Battery Science & Innovation Forum emerged from the NGS Innovation Pact - New Generation Storage, a national initiative co-financed by the European Union's NextGenerationEU program through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The forum provided a platform for dialogue between academia, industry, and the public sector, covering the entire energy storage value chain—from materials science and energy storage to recycling, sustainability, and geology.

The program addressed key topics in modern battery science, including advanced materials, electrochemistry and cell design, manufacturing scale-up, systems integration, sustainability, circularity, and prototype demonstrations. Keynote presentations outlined Europe's position in the global energy context, highlighting strategic pathways for the development of next-generation battery technologies. A highlight was the roundtable discussion dedicated to the challenges of transferring scientific results to real-world industrial applications, an issue of growing importance for Portugal and the European Union.

UA's Scientific Contribution

UA researchers contributed to this debate through various works developed within the framework of the NGS Agenda - New Generation Storage. Their presentations focused on the aging of lithium-ion batteries, rapid assessment of battery health status, thin films of solid-state electrolytes, and self-assembling peptide nanostructures for green energy storage.

This work on peptide-based nanostructures presented a particularly innovative perspective. Resulting from a collaboration between researchers from the Departments of Physics and Chemistry and CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials – led by Pavel Zelenovskii, Filipe Figueiredo, and Dinis Abranches – the research explored supramolecular peptide materials as sustainable functional components for future energy storage systems.

This bio-inspired strategy points to more ecological alternatives to conventional battery materials and links battery research to broader developments in nanotechnology and functional organic materials. To support this process, the team developed an AI-based tool that facilitates the identification of target peptides and accelerates the development of new materials.

Practical solutions and impact on the sector

Other contributions associated with UA addressed practical challenges in battery development and operation. Pedro Salomé, from the Department of Physics, analyzed degradation processes in lithium-ion battery electrodes and explored electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as a tool for the rapid diagnosis of battery health status. The work presented by Carlos Amorim and coordinated by António Cunha, from the Department of Physics and i3N, focused on thin films of solid-state electrolyte based on garnet, prepared by radiofrequency spraying, a technology of great relevance for the future of the sector.

These participations reinforce the active role of the University of Aveiro in the national battery research ecosystem and its involvement with European strategic priorities in terms of clean energy, sustainable materials, and technological innovation. The forum also provided an opportunity to strengthen links with research institutions, industrial partners, and innovation networks to accelerate the next generation of batteries.

The NGS Agenda is one of the 21 Mobilizing/Green Agendas for Business Innovation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) in which UA participates. More information about these Agendas is available at https://www.ua.pt/pt/agendasprr/.