Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Notice of Funding Opportunity
Last verified by NonDilute: 2026-04-29. Official notice and agency instructions control.
If you have a bench-scale process for extracting or refining critical minerals, DOE will fund you to validate and pilot it to commercialization—with national lab support and up to $3M.
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What this is
This DOE program funds collaborative industry partnerships developing mid-stage technologies for critical minerals and materials (rare earths, lithium, gallium, silicon carbide, germanium). Topics include recovery from scrap and tailings, direct lithium extraction, and semiconductor material refining. Awards range $1M–$3M; applicants get access to DOE national labs, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment to de-risk technology before scaling. Ideal for companies with bench-scale processes ready to validate and pilot at industry-relevant scale.
Who can apply
Open to any type of entity (unrestricted)—startups, small businesses, established companies, universities, non-profits. No stated geographic restriction. Applicants must have a technology at bench scale ready for validation and pilot work; collaborative industry partnerships are encouraged.
Eligible applicant types
- Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"
Full description — from the agency
Modification 0002 Annoucement (04/21/26): Extended LOI due date to 4/24/2026 Extended TA1 due date to 5/29/2026 Extended TA2 due date to 6/25/2026 Extended TA3 due date to 7/23/2026 Modification 0001 Announcement (04/15/26): Corrected units in Figure 3; Replaced instances of ‘FOA’ with ‘NOFO’ in Section D. Expected Performance Goals, Application Metrics; Corrected LOI character limit in Section IV.C. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports critical minerals and materials. Critical minerals and materials (CMM) are the building blocks for technologies foundational to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness. To build a secure domestic supply of CMMs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to support collaborative industry partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address CMM challenges in high impact areas. The CMM Accelerator program will advance these mid-stage innovations through validation, benchmarking, access to national lab test beds, testing in industry relevant environments, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. The program establishes a pipeline to support technology maturation to ultimately unlock private capital investments. It also will leverage other DOE lab-based activities, such as the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) and the Minerals to Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC). Technologies resulting from the program are expected to have a path to domestic commercialization within 3-7 years. This NOFO has 3 Topic Areas, and is further divided into sub-topics for Topic Areas 1 and 3. Apply to each topic following instructions below: • Topic Area 1 (Applications must be submitted via eXCHANGE, specifically under DE-TA1-0003589): Production and material efficiency for critical materials including rare earth elements. Inclusive of the following sub-topics: o 1A: Recovery and production from postindustrial manufacturing scrap o 1B: Recovery and production from postconsumer scrap (with an emphasis on electronic waste and drivetrains) o 1C: Recovery and production from combinations of feedstocks including mine tailings, postindustrial scrap, and postconsumer scrap • Topic Area 2 (Applications must be submitted via eXCHANGE, specifically under DE-TA2-0003589): Processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide for use in semiconductor applications. • Topic Area 3 (Applications must be submitted via eXCHANGE, specifically under DE-TA3-0003589): Cost-competitive direct lithium extraction, separation, and processing.¿Inclusive of the following sub-topics: o 3A: Cost-competitive direct lithium extraction o 3B: Advancing pre- and post- treatment and disposal technologies for direct lithium extraction and from geothermal brines o 3C: Exploration and Characterization of Critical Materials and Rare Earth Elements from Volcanically Hosted Geothermal Systems Additionally, please note that each Topic Area has it’s own Application Deadline, as identified in the Key Facts section of the NOFO Part 1. There is a Teaming Partner List associated with this NOFO to facilitate formation of new project teams. It can be found in e-XCHANGE under: TPL-0000069. Additional information about Teaming Partner Lists can be found in Section I. C. of the NOFO. The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Letter of Intent and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants. Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the NOFO Topic Area Deadlines: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance ([email protected]). The eXCHANGE helpde…
Topics: critical minerals · lithium extraction · rare earth recovery · material processing · pilot scale technology · DOE funding
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