The Technology Competitiveness and Industrial Policy Center (TCIP.org), a UC Berkeley academic research center launched in February, has initiated its first study, designed to strengthen U.S. leadership in next-generation battery technology.

The study on Technology Leadership in Rechargeable Electrochemical Batteries will undertake an examination of what has become an indispensable commodity of modern life, from its critical role in distributed information technology, autonomous systems, and power grid energy storage to its hey part in the global transition to all-electric vehicles (EVs). While China has come to dominate this industry in recent years, along with Japan and South Korea, this study will address what it would take for the U.S. to become more competitive.

“Technology leadership will require not only developing the next generation of battery chemistries and prototypes in the U.S.,” says S. Shankar Sastry, Thomas M. Siebel Professor in Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley, and TCIP Faculty Director. “We also need to adopt and vastly scale up advanced manufacturing methods for high-volume production.”

To kick off the study, TCIP leadership, partners, and research fellows from the nation’s most esteemed universities convened April 8, 2025 at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The deep dive sets out to address what it would take for battery technology innovation and production to thrive here in the U.S.; what technical, infrastructural, regulatory, and financial trade-offs must be considered; and how to leverage natural advantages as the world’s largest economy with the largest private capital markets to achieve leadership in rechargeable battery innovation and manufacturing.

“Rechargeable batteries were invented in the U.S, but the U.S. does not manufacture them,” says Edlyn Levine, Research Associate, Physics, Harvard University; Research Associate, MIT Sloan; and TCIP Fellow leading the study. “We will examine what structural impediments contributed to this offshoring and how to mitigate these.”

The effort will encompass four months of research, roundtables, expert interviews, and industry and government outreach, culminating in a published research study designed to help inform decision-makers in policy, and government, along with technology and manufacturing industries.