The Geographies of Battery Futures

The Geographies of Battery Futures examines how self-driving labs and AI-driven materials discovery are reshaping battery innovation, critical mineral demand, and global production networks. Focusing on lithium, cobalt, nickel, and emerging battery alternatives, the project investigates how automated research environments alter scientific labour, resource governance, supply chains, and environmental justice struggles. It asks how new technologies might support more sustainable energy transitions without reproducing the harms of extraction, resource colonialism, and uneven global development. Funded by the Acceleration Consortium, U of Toronto