Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem

Established in 1991, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem has eight faculties, 9000 students, and 1100 staff members. UJEP is the most modern scientific and educational hub in the Usti region. The Faculty of Environment, leading the WP, is the oldest environmental faculty in the Czech Republic. It has around XXX employees and 300 students. The faculty provides comprehensive education in environmental protection, chemistry and materials, landscape revitalization, and waste management, enabling an effective integration of interdisciplinary teaching. The faculty's main research fields include environmental, sustainable chemistry and technology, circular economy, new materials and sensors, applied ecology, natural and anthropogenic factors supporting biodiversity, and geographic information systems for landscape reconstruction. Over the last five years, the faculty successfully participated in many projects with a total budget of external funding of ~7 million EUR. The faculty collaborates with many domestic and international industrial partners.

Role within INERRANT

UJEP leads the work package titled “Development of a multifunctional separator technology based on electro-and hybrid-spinning membranes for safer LIBs,” and it also leads the task on recycling named “Improving the recycling process: purification processes for strategic metals, stability, contamination, and efficiency”. Two faculties contribute to the INERRANT research: the Faculty of Environment (coordinator) and the Faculty of Science. The key expertise UJEP brings to the project is i) electro- and hybrid-spinning technologies for the preparation of bi-functional polymer separators with a focus on enhanced safety of lithium-ion batteries and ii) recovering critical materials from used lithium-ion batteries.