Open Call: Accelerated Multi-Physical and Virtual Testing for Battery Aging, Reliability, and Safety Evaluation

Focus areas include understanding and describing the impact of multi-physical operational loads, failure modes, aging, and misuse on battery reliability and safety highlighting the dependencies between them; deriving advanced operating profiles for X-in-the-Loop test environments addressing electrical, thermal, and mechanical loads simultaneously; combining physics-based with data-driven test strategies enabling reliable virtual and physical battery testing; developing simplified test strategies to reduce testing complexity while improving battery safety and reliability; exploiting synergies between different battery chemistries; and developing advanced response strategies for damaged and aged batteries. A contribution to the European safety classification system by developing safety classification standards is also expected.

This initiative aims to reduce development costs and time-to-market for new battery systems by accelerating multi-physical and virtual testing. Current testing strategies are time-consuming and costly due to the complexity of assessing multi-dimensional operational impacts such as electrical, thermal, and mechanical stresses, as well as failure modes and degradation pathways. The call encourages applications to focus primarily on electric vehicle batteries but also to extend methodologies to other electro-mobility forms and stationary applications including second life.

Proposals are expected to incorporate virtual system validation methods supported by physical subsystem results, develop advanced measurement and diagnostic methods to enhance data depth and breadth around battery degradation and safety, and apply AI and generative AI to design experimental and testing strategies that maximize experimental outcomes and reduce testing time and effort. Furthermore, proposals should create synergy with initiatives focused on safe post-crash management of battery electric vehicles to harmonize monitoring techniques for safety risks and state-of-health algorithms.

Projects may engage with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre for experimental or desk-top research on battery performance and/or safety. The emphasis on integrating materials, products, and equipment produced in EU member states or associated countries seeks to strengthen the European battery ecosystem. This call also operates within the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU), requiring funded projects to report results supporting the partnership’s key performance indicators.

The expected outcomes are a significant reduction in development time and costs of battery cells and systems, increased battery reliability and safety through better understanding of aging and failure mechanisms, acceleration of reliable validation of new solutions enhancing user acceptability, safety, and performance, and the establishment of standardized battery system testing and validation approaches merging physical and virtual methods.

For more information, visit EC.