Beneficiaries & partners

Project Coordinator
Main supervisor of DC2 and co-supervisor of DC4

Dr. Joan J. Manyà is Professor (full) of Chemical Engineering. His current research activity focuses on developing advanced biomass-based carbon materials for applications in electrochemical energy storage (e.g., electrodes for Na-ion batteries and aqueous Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors). Dr. Manyà led several national and EU-funded projects. His research team is part of the Thermochemical Research Group (GPT), which develops its work at the framework of the Aragón Institute for Engineering Research (I3A), one of the research Institutes at the University de Zaragoza.

INSTM Scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC4

Francesco Nobili is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the School of Science and Technology of University of Camerino. He leads the LABMATES (Laboratory for materials for energy storage) research group, which focuses its research activity on developing sustainable materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices (such as biomass-derived carbons and binders, low- or no-Co cathodes for LIBs/SIBs and low- or no-PMG catalysts for ORR/OER) and to the study of transport and interfacial processes. Dr. Nobili led or took part in several national and EU-funded projects and cooperates with several companies involved in the battery industry.

Main supervisor of DC10

Claudio Gerbaldi got his PhD in Material Science and Technology in 2006 at the Politecnico di Torino, where he is now Full Professor, Chair of Chemistry for Applied Technologies. He leads the Group for Applied Materials and Electrochemistry, developing innovative electrochemical energy storage/conversion systems and related materials, with strong collaboration with academia, industry, and EU. He is co-author of about 170 research articles in ISI journals (h-index 66). He is the past Coordinator of GISEL, National Centre of Reference for Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems. Among others, he received the International “Roberto Piontelli” Award by the President of Italian Republic for outstanding contributions in the field of electrochemistry for energy-related applications.

Main supervisor DC11

Riccardo Ruffo is Full Professor of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at the University of Milano Bicocca. He got the Master Degree in Chemistry (1997), the Master Degree in Materials Science (2001), and the PH.D. in Material Science (2004). In 2008 and in 2014 he was Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University. His research interests cover materials for energy production and storage, mainly electrodes for alkaline ion batteries and semiconducting polymers for electro-optical applications such as photovoltaics and electrochromism. He is also an expert in the electrochemical characterization of organic molecules.

Dr Giuseppe Antonio Elia is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Science and Technology – DISAT of the Politecnico di Torino. He received his PhD degree from the «Sapienza» University of Rome. Following, he worked as a research scientist in highly qualified research centres, namely The Technical University of Berlin (TUB), Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) of the University of Warwick. Moreover, he spent several periods as a visiting scientist at Hanyang University, Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology Münster (MEET), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and also Helmholtz-Institute Ulm (HIU). He worked as a scientist in many projects related to developing advanced lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries and beyond lithium-ion systems. He is the author/co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles and author of 3 book chapters, and 3 patents.

KIT scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC6

Dr. Alberto Varzi is Principal Investigator and group leader of the research unit “Electrochemistry of Materials and Interfaces” at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). His current research activities focus on the study of novel electrode and electrolyte materials for electrochemical energy storage devices, with particular enphasis on the processes occurring at interfaces. Dr. Varzi participates in multiple national and EU-funded projects, as well as in direct industrial collaborations with worldwide automotive partners. His interests span from inorganic solid-solid state to aqueous batteries, including beyond-Li systems, as well as double-layer and hybrid capacitors.

Main supervisor of DC5

Dr. Maider Zarrabeitia is Associated Principal Investigator and Group Leader of Beyond Li: materials and interphases groups at Helmholtz-Institute Ulm (HIU)/Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since 2022. Her activities focused on sustainable cathode and anode electrode materials and polymer electrolytes beyond lithium-based technology, such as sodium- and potassium-(ion) batteries. In addition, Dr. Zarrabeitia has a large experiment on understanding the electrode-electrolyte interphases for several battery technologies such as Li-ion, Li-metal, Na-ion, and K-ion. Dr. Zarrabeitia led several BMBF (national) and EU-funded projects, and supervised several Master and PhD students.

IME scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC7 and co-supervisor of DC10

Rebeca Marcilla is Senior Researcher at Electrochemical Processed Unit in IMDEA Energy Institute. During her scientific career, she has acquired proven experience in advanced materials (eg. ionic liquids, polymer electrolytes, redox-active polymers, etc) and their application in electrochemical energy storage technologies. She is co-author of more than 120 articles, 7 patents and invited speaker in several international congresses. She has supervised 12 PhD thesis (6 presented+6 on-going) and several postdoctoral researchers including Marie Curie. She is member of the Governing Board of the Electrochemistry Group of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (GEE-RSEQ) and since 2023 appointed as Editor of Journal of Power Sources. She is PI of several projects at European (including 2 Marie-Curie ETN, 1 FET-Proactive, etc), National and Regional level, including one prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.

CICE scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC9 and co-supervisor of DC4

Dr. Nagore Ortiz-Vitoriano holds the position Team Leader of Transport and Interfaces and serves as Research Line Manager for Metal-air Batteries at CIC energiGUNE. His current research activity focuses on advancing sodium (Na) and zinc (Zn) air batteries through the creation of eco-friendly electrode and electrolyte materials, drawing inspiration from biopolymers and nature-mimicking approaches. Dr. Ortiz-Vitoriano has led several national and EU-funded projects as well as industrial projects.

ICL scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC1 and DC3

Magda Titirici has a PhD and Habitation from Germany and previously worked at the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Queen Mary University of London. She is a Chair in Sustainable Energy Materials at Imperial College London in the department of Chemical Engineering. Her research interests are in the area of sustainable materials derived from widely available precursors including green carbon sources and abundant minerals and their applications in energy storage, especially batteries beyond Li ion as well as electrocatalytical conversion of small and abundant molecules such as water, CO2, biomass into the next generation of sustainable chemicals and fuels. She has published over 350 publications and is on the list of highly cited researchers by Clarivate since 2018.

WMG scientist in charge
Main supervisor of DC8

Dr Ivana Hasa is Assistant Professor of Electrochemical Materials in WMG at the University of Warwick. Her research activities are directed toward the understanding of the processes governing the chemistry of the next generation sustainable battery technologies. Design of technically relevant materials and the understanding of their structure-property correlation and electrochemical behavior are the core of her research interest. Her work is inherently interdisciplinary, tackling challenges at the interface of chemistry, materials science, electrochemistry, and the scale up of new battery chemistries to full proven cell prototypes. Dr Hasa is involved in several national and EU-funded projects and serves as technical advisor for the “New and Emerging battery technologies” working group of Batteries Europe. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory board for Batteries & Supercaps, academic lead for the WMG Battery School for Faraday Institution and a member of the Training & Diversity panel of the faraday Institution.