Grants / Department of Energy / Golden Field Office

DE-FOA-0003589: Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Notice of Funding Opportunity

Closed Closed July 23, 2026 Opportunity DE-FOA-0003589 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of Golden Field Office notices from 2026.

• Award ceiling$3.0 million
• Award floor$1
• Total funding$69.0 million
• Expected awards44
• Cost sharingRequired
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to any type of organization.

• Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

Please see section II.A. in the NOFO

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses, individuals.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Conservation Research and Development awards averaged $2.5 million; this notice allows up to $3.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (31% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• The notice requires cost sharing or matching funds, so you must contribute part of the project cost.

What the grant funds

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.

Category: Energy.

Applying now

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