Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator

Background Information  

On August 13, 2025, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) released a notice of intent (NOI) to inform interested parties of its plan to release a “Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator” notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) of up to $50 million. The anticipated 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).

This NOI, issued in accordance with the Trump administration’s Executive Order Unleashing American Energy, will help 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.   

The planned NOFO may include the following Areas of Interest:

• Area of Interest 1: Processes in the rare earth magnet supply chain including production from secondary sources.
• Area of Interest 2: Processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors.
• Area of Interest 3: Technologies for cost competitive direct lithium extraction and separation.
• Area of Interest 4: Technologies that improve cost competitiveness of critical material separation technologies through co-production of value-added products from byproducts and scrap.

This “notice of intent” No. DE-FOA-0003588 is for informational purposes only. The Department is not seeking comments on the information in this notice. All information contained in this notice is subject to change.  

This NOI was announced as part of a group of NOIs totaling nearly $1 billion that will advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals and materials supply chains.  

View the full NOI.