EU provides funding for BFH battery researcher

25.01.2021 Dr Priscilla Caliandro, a research associate at the BFH Energy Storage Research Centre, is the recipient of project funding from the European research programme Clean Sky. The project seeks to integrate a battery system into a short-haul aeroplane.

GENESIS, as the project is named, has been awarded a grant by the Clean Sky initiative of the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Over a 30-month period, Dr Priscilla Caliandro, a project manager at BFH, will conduct research on all-electric and hybrid aircraft engines in collaboration with the technical universities in Denmark, Naples, Erlangen and Delft. The research team will identify, design and evaluate various drive technologies – including battery, fuel cell and hybrid systems. The project will focus on short-haul aircrafts with a capacity of around 50 passengers.

“The BFH Energy Storage Research Centre will take the lead on battery and fuel cell technology in the GENESIS project,” Priscilla Caliandro explains. The researchers will analyse and design battery systems that meet the requirements for electric aviation. “We will also make predictions for the battery manufacturing process,” says the battery researcher, whose Biel-based team will help pave the way for clean, electric aviation in future.

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