The call for urgent action to address climate change and develop more sustainable modes of energy delivery is generally recognized. It is also apparent that batteries, both in the transportation and the power sectors, need to play a predominant role if the global community is to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. Simply put, nations’ efforts will focus largely on electrifying transportation systems to be supported by power systems that deliver low carbon energy, using a range of renewable technologies. Stationary batteries will play a critical role in not only providing direct energy services, but also in acting as backup providers when renewable resources are only able to provide intermittent services, dependent on local climatic and other circumstances. The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the state of affairs with regards to reuse and recycling of lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries, in order to assess if and to what extent developing countries can and should play a larger role in this burgeoning area.

Our Nature paper “Recycling Lithium Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles” has been cited in the World Bank Report “Reuse and Recycling : Environmental Sustainability of Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage Systems”.

Harper, G., Sommerville, R., Kendrick, E., Driscoll, L., Slater P., Stolkin, R., Walton, A., Christensen, P., Heidrich, O., Lambert, S., Abbott, A., Ryder, K., Gaines, L., & Anderson, P., (2019) Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles, Nature 575, 75–86 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1682-5 [Accepted for publication in Nature as part of the Nature 150 years Collection.]

The Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements & Critical Materials has won the Outstanding Research Impact award at the University of Birmingham's 2026 Research & Impact Awards. The Centre Award recognises research that has delivered a wide-reaching and significant benefit to society, policy, the environment and beyond. The University's research portal records the prize as awarded on 26 March 2026, with Gavin, Critical Materials Research Fellow at Birmingham Business School, listed as a recipient alongside the Centre. The Centre was co-founded by Professors Allan Walton and Paul Anderson and Dr Gavin Harper, and is led by Professors Allan Walton, Paul Anderson and Emma Kendrick.

Gavin features in a short film produced by the British Embassy in Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar, about the potential for UK-Mongolia collaboration. In it he argues that critical-materials supply chains can be made more sustainable and resilient through diversification and partnership, and that the UK and Mongolia have complementary strengths. The UK, he says, should use its strengths in knowledge, innovation and intellectual property to help resource-rich countries unlock their potential, releasing the materials needed for decarbonisation and the move to cleaner technologies. Gavin spoke for the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements & Critical Materials, sharing lessons from projects including the Faraday Institution's ReLiB project, Met4Tech, the EU's Harmony project and the EPSRC-funded TReFCo and RECREATE projects. He shared the film on LinkedIn on 6 June 2025.

Same visit: 3rd Mongolian Critical Minerals Association Seminar (29 May 2025) and 15th Astana Mining & Metallurgy Congress (4 June 2025).

Met4Tech, the UKRI-funded Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals, marked four years of work with a finale event at the Eden Project in Cornwall on 30 October 2024. More than 40 business leaders, policymakers, researchers and sector bodies attended. Delegates heard about the project's outputs, which include a national roadmap for a technology-metals circular economy, the UK Tech Metals Observatory and a Recycling Toolbox, and saw a touring exhibit, The New Precious Metals. Gavin, a Co-Investigator at the University of Birmingham, spoke in two of the sessions, including on how the partner universities, the British Geological Survey and industry worked together across the physical and social sciences, and contributed to the battery roadmap presentations.

Related: Met4Tech roadmapping workshops with external stakeholders.

Gavin took part in the Cambridge Industry-Academia Workshop on Critical Mineral Supply Chain Resilience, held on 23 and 24 September 2024. Its first day, at the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), included the soft launch of the UK-India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory project. The workshop was organised by IfM's Industrial Resilience Research Group with IIT Bombay and the UK Science and Innovation Network, and drew more than 100 delegates from academia, industry and policy in both countries. The observatory will follow critical-mineral supply chains from mine to electric vehicle, helping to spot supply risks, recycling opportunities and shortages. Gavin is an Academic Collaborator at IfM.

Related: Royal Academy of Engineering and Indian National Academy of Engineering critical minerals exchange.

Gavin was invited back to speak at the NAATBatt Lithium Battery Recycling Workshop V, held on 8 and 9 August 2022 at the Michigan Union in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He gave a talk on lithium-ion battery recycling at the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements & Critical Materials and took part in a panel. The invitation followed his presentation at the fourth annual workshop in Buffalo, New York, in 2019. NAATBatt International, the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries, runs the workshop series on recycling lithium-ion batteries.

Gavin was an invited speaker at the E-Waste World Conference & Expo on 14 November 2019. The conference and exhibition for the electronics, battery and metal recycling sector is held in Frankfurt, Germany. Gavin went on to take part in later editions, beginning with the online summit of 2020. Event record: E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2019.

Gavin chaired a panel and spoke as an invited speaker at the E-Waste World Conference & Expo Virtual Summit on 18 November 2020. The online edition of the Frankfurt-based recycling conference came a year after his invited talk at the 2019 conference. Event record: E-Waste World Conference & Expo Virtual Summit 2020. Previous year: Gavin Speaks at E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2019.

Gavin chaired a panel at the E-Waste World Conference & Expo in Frankfurt on 30 November 2021. It was his third consecutive year at the event, after the invited talk at the 2019 conference and the panel chair and talk at the 2020 virtual summit. Event record: E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2021. Previous year: Gavin Chairs Panel at E-Waste World Virtual Summit 2020.

Gavin returned to the E-Waste World Conference & Expo at Messe Frankfurt on 28 June 2023 as panel chair and moderator. He had previously taken part in 2019, 2020 and 2021, most recently as a panel chair. Event record: E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2023. Previous year: Gavin Chairs Panel at E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2021.

Gavin took part as a panellist at the Battery Recycling Conference & Expo, held with the E-Waste World Conference & Expo at Messe Frankfurt on 26 June 2024. It followed his 2023 appearance as panel chair and moderator. Event record: Battery Recycling Conference & Expo 2024 (with E-Waste World Conference & Expo). Previous year: Gavin Chairs and Moderates at E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2023.

Gavin gave a keynote, spoke, took part in a panel and chaired a panel at the Metal Recycling Conference & Expo at Messe Frankfurt on 17 June 2026. The event belongs to the same Frankfurt recycling series as the E-Waste World and Battery Recycling conferences where Gavin had appeared since 2019. Event record: Metal Recycling Expo 2026 (Metal Recycling Conference), Messe Frankfurt. Previous year: Gavin Joins Panel at Battery Recycling Conference & Expo 2024.