Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator (DE-FOA-0003589): DOE Cooperative Funding for Prototype and Pilot Technologies

Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator (DE-FOA-0003589): DOE Cooperative Funding for Prototype and Pilot Technologies

Historical reference: the 2026 round is closed

The Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunity for moving promising critical-minerals and materials technologies beyond bench-scale proof. The official DOE landing page and the final NOFO identify three topic areas, separate deadlines, and a total of up to $69 million. The latest application deadline was Topic Area 3 on July 23, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The DOE eXCHANGE system states that its submission controls enforce hard deadlines, and applications submitted after the applicable deadline are ineligible.

This page is therefore an archive entry, not an open call. The closed deadline remains in the deadline field because it is the real closing date for this round, and historicalReference = true distinguishes that archive status from a live opportunity. The official DOE materials reviewed for this update do not announce a subsequent cycle or a replacement deadline. Do not treat the dates or application instructions below as an invitation to submit after the window has closed; use them to understand the completed solicitation and to prepare for a future DOE announcement if one is issued.

Key details

The award figures need careful reading. The $69 million is the approximate total available for all topics, not a guaranteed award to one applicant and not a promise that every selected project receives the same amount. Phase 1 funding is divided by topic. Topics 1 and 2 each had an approximate maximum individual award of $2 million. Topic 3A also had an approximate maximum of $2 million, while Topics 3B and 3C listed approximate individual awards of $1 million to $3 million. Phase 2 was a separate possible pilot-scale opportunity for eligible Phase 1 projects from Topics 1, 2, and 3A, subject to successful Phase 1 work, a strong business case, suitable partnerships, and a 50% cost-share commitment.

What the accelerator was designed to fund

DOE described this NOFO as a way to support collaborative industry partnerships that can prototype and pilot processing technologies proven at roughly Technology Readiness Levels 3-4. The target is not an untested research idea with no process evidence. Applicants were expected to explain how their technology could be validated, benchmarked, tested in an industry-relevant environment, and assessed through techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA).

The program addresses domestic production and processing of critical minerals and materials used in energy, manufacturing, transportation, electronics, and national-security applications. The official description emphasizes dependable and affordable domestic supply chains. It also describes a path toward domestic commercialization within three to seven years, so a credible route from technical result to industrial adoption mattered alongside scientific merit.

The work was organized around prototyping and preparation for scale. A good historical fit would have included measurable process performance, a plausible feedstock or resource base, a route to pilot operation, and a team able to manage engineering, testing, commercialization, and required federal reporting. A proposal that only described a laboratory hypothesis, without a validation plan or a realistic operating context, would have been a poor match.

Topic areas

Topic Area 1: production and material efficiency

Topic Area 1 covered production and material efficiency for critical materials, including rare earth elements. Its sub-topics addressed recovery and production from postindustrial manufacturing scrap, postconsumer scrap with emphasis on electronic waste and drivetrains, and combinations of feedstocks such as mine tailings, postindustrial scrap, and postconsumer scrap.

The official allocation for Topic Area 1 was approximately $24 million, with an estimated 10-14 awards, individual awards up to $2 million, a minimum 20% cost share, and a project period of up to 36 months. A strong application would have connected feedstock access, separation or recovery performance, material quality, process economics, and a credible route to larger-scale operation.

Topic Area 2: gallium and semiconductor materials

Topic Area 2 focused on processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide for semiconductor applications. The official estimate was approximately $6 million, with an estimated 1-5 awards, individual awards up to $2 million, a minimum 20% cost share, and a project period of up to 36 months.

This topic required a direct connection to semiconductor-relevant material processing rather than a general critical-materials narrative. Applicants needed to describe the process, the performance measures that would prove its value, and how the proposed work could improve a domestic supply chain or reduce a specific processing constraint.

Topic Area 3: lithium extraction, processing, and geothermal resources

Topic Area 3 covered cost-competitive direct lithium extraction, separation, and processing. It included direct lithium extraction; pre-treatment, post-treatment, and disposal technologies connected with direct lithium extraction and geothermal brines; and exploration and characterization of critical materials and rare earth elements from volcanically hosted geothermal systems.

Topic Area 3A had approximately $8 million available, an estimated 4-6 awards, individual awards up to $2 million, a minimum 20% cost share, and a project period of up to 24 months. Topic Area 3B had approximately $9 million available, an estimated 3-9 awards, individual awards of $1 million-$3 million, a minimum 20% cost share, and a project period of up to 24 months. Topic Area 3C had approximately $6 million available, an estimated 3-6 awards, individual awards of $1 million-$3 million, a minimum 20% cost share, and a project period of up to 36 months.

The topics were separate submission tracks. A team could not submit one generic application to the umbrella program and assume DOE would route it internally. The NOFO required the letter of intent and full application to go to the correct eXCHANGE page for the selected topic.

Eligibility and team structure

The official NOFO did not describe eligibility as unrestricted. The listed domestic entities were institutions of higher education, for-profit entities, nonprofit entities, state and local government entities, and Indian Tribes. DOE FFRDCs, non-DOE FFRDCs, and federal research agencies could serve as prime applicants or subrecipients for Topic Areas 3B and 3C, and as subrecipients for the other topic areas under the stated rules.

Foreign participation was not automatic. A foreign entity applying to the NOFO, or a proposed foreign subrecipient, required a separate explicit written waiver request. The NOFO also required work to be performed in the United States unless DOE approved a waiver. Those constraints should have been resolved during team formation, not left for the final upload.

The program encouraged collaboration among industry, national laboratories, and academia. DOE also maintained a Teaming Partner List on eXCHANGE to help organizations identify potential partners. For a serious proposal, the division of responsibility should have been concrete: who owns the process, who supplies or characterizes feedstock, who runs validation, who performs TEA and LCA, who manages pilot preparation, and who can support the cost share.

Application process and required materials

The completed solicitation required a letter of intent for all topic areas by April 24, 2026, followed by a full application deadline specific to the topic: May 29, 2026 for Topic Area 1, June 25, 2026 for Topic Area 2, or July 23, 2026 for Topic Area 3. Both submissions had to use the correct eXCHANGE topic page. The NOFO warned that a submission to the wrong page, a late submission, or an application without a previously submitted letter of intent would be ineligible.

Applicants also had to complete DOE’s required registrations and keep them active. The NOFO advised allowing substantial lead time for these one-time actions. It recommended submitting application documents at least 48 hours before the deadline and setting aside at least one hour for the upload process. Applicants could revise a submission before the deadline, but changed documents had to be resubmitted. DOE stated that server or connection congestion would not extend the deadline.

The application package was more extensive than a short concept note. The principal components listed in the NOFO included:

• SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance.
• A technical volume limited to 25 pages.
• Letters of commitment, with a one-page limit for each letter.
• A Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO), in Word format with a 10-page limit.
• SF-424A budget information for non-construction programs.
• The budget justification workbook and, where relevant, a subrecipient budget justification workbook.
• A summary for public release and a one-page summary slide.
• Biosketches and current-and-pending-support disclosures for each Covered Individual.
• A digital persistent identifier and research-security-training information included with the required support disclosure materials.
• A data management and sharing plan, transparency of foreign connections, potentially duplicative funding notice, and lobbying certifications or disclosures where applicable.
• FFRDC work proposals or authorizations, foreign-entity waivers, and foreign-work waivers when those circumstances applied.

The technical volume needed to make the project assessable. The NOFO called for a workplan with objectives, technical scope, work breakdown structure, tasks, milestones, Go/No-Go decision points, and a project schedule. It also required a TEA and LCA plan that compared the proposed approach with the current commercially available state of the art, used preliminary data, and set end-of-project targets. The SOPO had to cover all project activities, including any technical assistance requested by the team.

Projects that could affect Indian Tribes had additional responsibilities. For work on Tribal lands or work intersecting Tribal subsurface rights, the application needed documentation of support from the relevant Tribes. For other potential impacts, the applicant at minimum needed documentation that an authorized representative was aware of the project and its potential effects. Omitting required Tribal documentation could make an application ineligible or non-responsive.

Review and Phase 2 planning

DOE’s compliance review required the application to meet the content and form rules, include all required documents, and be successfully uploaded through the specified eXCHANGE site. Merit review then considered the proposal under DOE’s financial-assistance review procedures. In practical terms, the technical story needed to be matched by a credible budget, cost-share evidence, partner commitments, risk controls, and measurable milestones.

For Phase 1 projects in Topics 1, 2, and 3A, the NOFO described a possible later Phase 2 pilot-scale competition. Phase 1 awardees would need to finish the initial work, build a compelling business case, develop necessary partnerships, and secure a 50% cost share for Phase 2 costs. The Phase 2 preparation plan was expected to address scale, throughput, performance, cost reduction, upstream and downstream partners, additional expertise, investor or strategic-partner engagement, follow-on funding, and the commercial value proposition. Phase 2 was not an automatic second award and was not available through this NOFO to Topics 3B and 3C.

What to do now

There is no open submission action for this archived round. Researchers and companies interested in similar DOE work should monitor the official DOE critical-minerals pages and the eXCHANGE funding-opportunity listings for a separately announced solicitation. A future call may change the topic structure, eligible applicants, award amounts, cost share, required forms, or deadlines. The information on this page should be used as a record of DE-FOA-0003589, not as a substitute for a new notice.

The verified official pages are:

• DOE program page: https://www.energy.gov/cmei/ammto/critical-minerals-and-materials-accelerator-0
• DOE eXCHANGE funding-opportunity index: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx?Search=DE-FOA-0003588
• DE-FOA-0003589 NOFO Part 1: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/FileContent.aspx?FileID=a262eaf7-8132-4d40-9dc6-5fc33ac329cd

For any future announcement, read the full NOFO Parts 1 and 2, confirm the topic-specific eXCHANGE page, verify the current forms, and recalculate cost share before investing in a proposal.