InterdisciplinarityInterdisciplinarity is a crucial component of innovation (Bordons et al 1999, Lundvall 2001). While thereis variance in how it is conceptualized (Rau et al 2018), interdisciplinarity contributes to sustainable research(Rau and Fahy 2013). Applying this to battery storage-related research, we can build on Trajtenberg et al (1997)finding that diversity of existing knowledge increases diversity of subsequent knowledge. For example, Battkeet al (2016) argue that specialized knowledge within a particular battery technlogy increases knowledge flowswithin that technology but not across technologies. This was shown through an analysis of more than 42,000battery technology-related patents issued from 1980 to 2010, specifically lead-acid, lithium-ion, and nickelbattery patents. If specialization leads to more specialization in terms of battery-related knowledge, innovation hubs such as JCESR must avoid the tendency to restrict the scope of its research. Successful innovation requiresincreased interdisciplinarity, i.e. increases in the degree of ‘diversified and peripheral knowledge’, to adopt thelanguage of Battke et al (2016). In this way, it is claimed that research efforts at JCESR are aligned with translationalscience and innovation when the disciplinary content of these efforts is expanding. Given the DOE’s mandate forits battery storage innovation hub, it is hypothesized that JCESR’s research has increasing breadth and decreasingdensity across disciplines, i.e. it is growing and becoming less cohesive.