Coming out of the inaugural meeting of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) last week issued a $10 million funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for a Critical Materials Accelerator. These funds are available as a result of the U.S. government prioritizing investment in critical supply chains.
Projects funded under the FOA, led by EERE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), will validate and prototype technologies and processes that address critical materials challenges by developing alternatives, diversifying and expanding supply, increasing manufacturing and material efficiency, and establishing a circular economy.
The application process consists of two submission phases. Applicants must submit a Concept Paper by 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 5, 2024 to be eligible to submit a Full Application by 5 pm ET on Mar. 22, 2024. Details are provided in this document under DE-FOA-0003155.
This FOA solicits proposals that advance science and technology innovation and de-risk technologies that build and transform domestic critical material supply chains. Topics include:
Topic 1 – Use of Magnets with Reduced Critical Materials Content
- Topic 1a – Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets for Clean Energy Technologies: Projects will validate alternative magnet compositions that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials by at least 25 wt.%
- Topic 1b – Motors and Drivetrains using Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets: Projects will prototype electric machines or drivetrains that use magnets that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials by at least 25 wt.%
Topic 2 – Improved Unit Operations of Processing and Manufacturing of Critical Materials
Projects will make improvements to unit operations and/or processes to separate, refine/process critical materials for clean energy technologies that rely on critical materials.
Topic 3 – Critical Material Recovery from Scrap and Post-Consumer Products
Selectees will develop and validate approaches to recycle or recover critical materials from post-consumer products, including but not limited to, design for recycling and reuse and de-risking critical material recovery from waste and manufacturing scrap.
Topic 4 – Reduced Critical Material Demand for Clean Energy Technologies
Selectees will develop and validate materials, technologies, or processes that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials for clean energy technologies.
View the FOA description with links to important documents.
If your company has questions about this FOA, please contact ISRI Chief Scientist David Wagger (dwagger@isri.org).
