UMICORE SPECIALTY POWDERS FRANCE

Their core work

Umicore Specialty Powders France is the Grenoble-based arm of the Umicore group, specializing in the production and development of advanced battery materials — particularly cathode active materials such as nickel-rich NMC and sodium-ion compounds. They supply specialty powders used in next-generation electrochemical energy storage, serving both lithium-ion and emerging sodium-ion battery value chains. In H2020 projects, they contribute materials expertise as a third-party supplier, providing real-world industrial materials for testing, characterization, and integration into prototype battery cells.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their H2020 involvement spans only 2019–2020 (start dates), so the evolution window is narrow. Early projects (TEESMAT, NAIMA) focused on established characterization methods and sodium-ion chemistry for cost-effective stationary storage. Later projects (ASTRABAT, BIG-MAP) shifted toward solid-state lithium-ion batteries and AI-accelerated materials platforms, signaling a move from conventional battery chemistries toward frontier battery technologies and digitalized R&D methods.

Umicore Specialty Powders is moving from supplying conventional battery powders toward engaging with AI-driven materials acceleration and solid-state battery architectures — positioning for post-2025 battery generations.

How they like to work

They participate exclusively as a third party (linked to a consortium member, likely parent company Umicore), meaning they provide specialized materials or services without directly managing project workpackages. With 83 unique consortium partners across 20 countries, they sit inside large, pan-European research consortia. This makes them an accessible industrial materials supplier — easy to integrate into a consortium without requiring a lead management role.

Through four projects they have connected with 83 unique partners across 20 countries, reflecting the large-scale nature of European battery research consortia. Their reach is broad and pan-European rather than concentrated in any single geography.

What sets them apart

As part of the Umicore group — one of Europe's few large-scale cathode material producers — this Grenoble site brings genuine industrial manufacturing capability to research projects, not just lab-scale samples. They bridge the gap between academic material discovery and industrial-scale powder production, which is critical for any battery project aiming beyond TRL 4. For consortium builders, they offer a direct line into a major commercial battery materials supply chain.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BIG-MAP
  A flagship Battery 2030+ project applying AI and machine learning to accelerate battery materials discovery across the entire value chain.
• NAIMA
  Targeted the commercially underexplored sodium-ion battery space for stationary storage, combining cost analysis (LCA/LCC) with cell development.
• ASTRABAT
  Ambitious all solid-state battery project targeting 2025 market readiness, combining Ni-rich NMC cathodes with solid electrolytes.