UT leads €8 million national sodium-ion battery research

Tuesday 13 January 2026

From electric trucks, buses, ships and industrial machinery to stationary energy storage for the electricity grid: sodium-ion batteries could play an important role in making large-scale energy storage more sustainable and less dependent on scarce raw materials. This week, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has granted the NANEXBAT research consortium a subsidy of €8 million to explore materials innovations for next-generation sodium-ion batteries. The UT-led consortium will start a combination of experimental and computational studies on how these materials can be improved and made suitable for real-world applications.

Sodium-ion batteries are a promising alternative to today’s lithium-ion batteries, especially for applications where size and weight are less critical but sustainability, cost and material availability are key.

Broad consortium of battery material experts

This makes sodium-ion batteries particularly attractive for heavy-duty mobility, such as trucks, buses, ships and logistics equipment, as well as for stationary energy storage in industry and the electricity grid. The consortium consists of a close collaboration with 8 industrial partners on raw materials production (Nobian, Euro Support, Bor-Lyte, Clean Fuels) and heavy-duty mobility (DAF, VDL, Damen, Hyster-Yale).

The University of Twente will coordinate the five-year project NANEXBAT. It involves battery material scientists at the Battery Centre Twente under the supervision of Prof Dr Mark Huijben, Prof Dr Andre ten Elshof and Prof Dr Payam Kaghazchi. Besides the 8 industrial partners, the research consortium consists of battery materials experts from 5 universities (University of Twente, Delft University of Technology, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, and Eindhoven University of Technology).

Growthfund programme ‘Material Independence and Circular Batteries’

The NANEXBAT fundamental research project is part of the large national Growthfund programme ‘Material Independence and Circular Batteries’ and will pave the way towards more efficient next-generation battery technologies, which are commercially viable and contribute to a pathway towards a circular and sustainable society. Sodium-ion batteries hold great promise to offer a viable solution for reducing dependence on critical materials and developing battery technologies with improved circularity.