The Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) and Nano Design Works (NDW) represent a new way to collaborate with Argonne, providing a single point of contact for businesses to assemble tailored interdisciplinary teams to address their most challenging R&D questions. The centers will also provide a pathway to Argonne’s fundamental research that is poised for commercialization.

Center directors, Andreas Roelofs of NDW and Jeff Chamberlain of ACCESS, each have created startups in their careers and understand the value that collaboration with a national laboratory can bring to a company trying to innovate in technologically challenging fields of science. While the new centers will work with all sizes of companies, a strong emphasis will be placed on helping small businesses and startups.

Chamberlain is familiar with the potential of energy storage as a transformational technology, having led the formation of Argonne’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR). ACCESS will tap Argonne’s full battery expertise, which extends well beyond JCESR.