News: Suppliers
10 April 2026
US DOE issues $69m Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator funding opportunity
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and the Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) have announced a ‘Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator’ Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) of up to $69m for technologies that advance the domestic separation, processing, and refining of critical materials. Projects selected will address the greatest technical obstacles to a more secure, domestic critical materials supply chain.
The NOFO will focus investments on American, industry-led partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative critical materials processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address challenges in high-impact areas. The program establishes a pipeline that will support technology maturation to ultimately unlock private capital investments. It will also leverage other DOE lab-based investments, such as the Critical Materials Innovation (CMI) Hub and the Minerals to Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC).
The NOFO should help to ensure a more secure, predictable and affordable supply of critical minerals and materials that are “foundational to American energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness”.
DOE is seeking projects that bridge the gap between bench-scale innovations and commercially viable technologies. Selected project teams will form industry-led partnerships and conduct R&D with support from the US national laboratories.
The NOFO, which is part of DOE’s Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Program and jointly funded by CMEI’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) and HGEO’s Office of Geothermal, has three primary topic areas:
- Topic Area 1 (application deadline 26 May): Production and material efficiency for critical materials, including rare-earth elements (REEs). Sub-topics include:
- 1A: recovery and production from post-industrial manufacturing scrap;
- 1B: recovery and production from post-consumer scrap (with an emphasis on electronic waste and drivetrains);
- 1C: recovery and production from blended feedstocks including mine tailings, post-industrial scrap, and post-consumer scrap.
- Topic Area 2 (application deadline 22 June): Processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide.
- Topic Area 3 (application deadline 20 July): Cost-competitive direct lithium extraction, separation, and processing. Sub-topics include:
- 3A: cost-competitive direct lithium extraction;
- 3B: advancing pre- and post-treatment and disposal technologies for direct lithium extraction;
- 3C: exploration and characterization of critical materials and REEs from volcanic-hosted geothermal systems.
CMEI is hosting an informational webinar will be hosted on April 16, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. ET to discuss the NOFO and application requirements. Letters of intent are due by 5pm ET on 21 April. DOE expects to announce selections between July and the end of August, with funding awards issued between September and year-end. The estimated performance period is December 2026 to December 2029.
The Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator is one of several programs developed through DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative. This NOFO is part of $1bn in critical materials funding announced by DOE in August 2025, and follows the Manufacturing Deployment Office’s announcement of up to $500m for the development of demonstration and commercial facilities to increase the domestic supply of critical minerals and materials for advanced batteries.
Teaming Partner List
To facilitate the formation of project teams for this NOFO, the DOE is compiling a Teaming Partner List to allow organizations that may wish to participate in a project to explore potential partnerships with other applicants. It will be available on eXCHANGE and will be regularly updated.
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