Bengaluru-headquartered deeptech and advanced batterytech startup Log9 Materials has entered into a three year agreement to work collaboratively and on mutual-interest basis along with The Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART), Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi (IIT-D) in order to work towards serving multi-pronged objectives such as promoting superlative research and development (R&D) in the areas of developing advanced battery and energy storage solutions, including battery packs for electric vehicles; imparting industrial training to Engineering, Technology and Sciences’ students; and solving the need for creation of large reservoir of highly qualified manpower in all fields related to EVs and energy storage solutions in India.
The collaboration between Log9 and CART, IIT-Delhi has been established and finalized through an umbrella MOU, which was recently signed between Delhi Science and Technology (S&T) Cluster managed by DRIIV Foundation, and Log9 Materials Scientific Private Limited; as a part of this MOU, DRIIV (Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation) — an initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India – has agreed to facilitate the long-term collaboration that is planned between CART and Log9, who will be working together on multiple academic and industry-oriented projects in the upcoming months and years.
This umbrella MOU seeks to encourage quality and effective interactions between the engineers, scientists and professionals at Log9 with the research fellows, faculty members and students of CART, IIT-Delhi through various kinds of (proposed) arrangements – such as sponsored research programs, industrial training to the students of CART, sharing of R&D facilities and equipment to promote academic and research interaction in the areas of cooperation on pay-per-use basis, and so on. Additionally, by leveraging upon this agreement and partnership with CART, Log9 will be looking to demonstrate and generate wider visibility and reach for their flagship technologies, products and/or solutions, particularly in and around the NCT of Delhi.
Speaking on the MOU signing, Dr. Akshay Singhal, Founder and CEO, Log9 Materials says, “We are proud to announce the strategic collaboration with a prestigious player like IIT-Delhi’s CART, which is facilitated and enabled with the active support of DRIIV. With the electric mobility and energy sectors in India growing rapidly over the last few years, a dire need has been felt for industry-academia partnerships to promote innovation, research and talent in these sectors. And we are certain that this forward-looking agreement will not only address these issues but also go beyond to provide breakthrough research and solutions and thereby an overall much-needed boost towards the EV and energy storage ecosystems in our country. Additionally, the implementation of this MOU can go a long way in achieving India’s ‘Atmanirbharta’, i.e. self-reliance in terms of electric vehicles by driving local innovations at scale. We at Log9 look forward to working on a number of academic, research-related and other types of industry-enabling projects with the key stakeholders at CART in the near future, and also have plans to replicate this model with other reputable institutions and industry bodies as well.
Prof. B. K. Panigrahi, professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT-Delhi, Head of CART and the Lead PI of E-mobility Cluster of DRIIV says, “It is indeed a great opportunity for us to collaborate in various research fronts along with Log9 Materials. I look forward to the implementation of various research projects by the IIT Delhi faculty, as well as the training and internship opportunities for the students and research scholars to make this collaboration productive.”
Shipra Mishra, CEO, DRIIV adds, “This partnership is a perfect example of industry-academia collaboration aimed at developing and commercialising more efficient, longer lasting and cheaper EV batteries and charging infrastructure, custom designed for Indian conditions. We hope that our joint efforts will bring us closer to realising the dream of mainstreaming electric vehicles in India.
Notably, The Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART) at IIT-Delhi was established in 2019 with the vision to promote interdisciplinary research in the area of electric vehicles, energy storage and other allied and relevant areas. The Centre envisages strong networking and collaboration among various academia, industries, and research labs in India and abroad to carry out cutting-edge scientific research. On the other hand, Log9 is an indigenous startup that has been dedicatedly working on and using its materials science competency to develop advanced, climate-friendly energy storage solutions for the EV sector for more than three years now. The startup – which was initially incubated at and backed by IIT-Roorkee’s TIDES – has over the years been working with IIT-Bombay, IISC-Bangalore, and other notable organizations of repute across various projects or initiatives.”