With the aim to give a view of the present research activity in Italy on lithium-ion batteries, the contribution of six Academic groups involved in a National Project "Electrode and Electrolyte Nanostructured Materials for Advanced Lithium Batteries", which is exploratory in nature for the search of novel or improved materials, also by optimizing materials processing techniques, is here presented and discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.