Australia’s Novonix Ltd. — the parent company of Novonix Battery Testing Solutions, which emerged from research conducted at Dalhousie University by Jeff Dahn — is on track to win a mammoth US$150 million or C$206 million grant from the United States Department of Energy.

The grant money is part of an initiative from President Joe Biden to onshore manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid as part of his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Novonix’s anode materials division is about to enter negotiations with the American government covering “final conditions including operational milestones and timing and schedule of payment of grant funds,” the company said in a statement. Anodes are the positively charged portion of a battery through which electricity exits.

“We are excited to partner with the DOE to further our mission of establishing a domestic supply chain for synthetic graphite used in lithium-based batteries and creating long-term sustainable value for our stakeholders,” said Novonix CEO Chris Burns.

Novonix plans to produce 40,000 tons of synthetic graphite — a raw material used in many batteries — annually by 2025. Earlier this year, Novonix Battery Testing Solutions, or Novonix BTS borrowed C$1 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to buy specialized equipment for its production facility in Halifax’s Burnside Industrial Park.

Brisbane, Australia-based Novonix Ltd. bought the company now called Novonix BTS in 2017, with Chinese battery company CATL also signing on as an investor. Novonix BTS continues to be based in Bedford, and its parent company trades on the Nasdaq.

Novonix shares traded up on the news, closing at US$5.61 Wednesday.

Dahn is a Dalhousie University professor renowned internationally for his work on lithium-ion batteries. In 2015, his lab at Dal made headlines by signing a five-year research partnership with Tesla, marking the first collaboration between the American automaker and a Canadian university.