What Is the Critical Materials Collaborative?
The Critical Materials Collaborative (CMC) is a new mode of connection created by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to improve and increase communication and coordination among DOE, government agencies, and stakeholders working on critical materials projects.
The CMC was launched in summer 2023 and born out of the need for a critical materials convening arm. The CMC serves to align, grow, and coordinate funding for the innovation ecosystem for critical materials research in the United States, with the goal of accelerating commercialization, deployment, and the development of secure domestic critical material supply chains.
Mission
To accelerate DOE’s critical materials applied research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) and achieve domestic clean energy manufacturing, climate, and national security goals by:
Building a robust innovation ecosystem.
Training the critical materials leaders and workforce across multiple sectors.
Enabling industry adoption of novel, cutting-edge technology.
Laying the scientific and techno-logical ground-work needed to address emerging challenges.
Team
Currently, the CMC is made up of several sponsoring program offices and technology offices across the DOE and RD&D awardees funded through CMC-coordinated opportunities but will expand soon to include offices across the federal government.
The CMC also partners with the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, which plays a central role in the CMC as an innovation engine—a convener for shared ideas, best practices, and early-stage science and technology solutions.
The CMC co-chairs are:
- The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
Sponsoring offices are (in alphabetical order) the:
- Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
- Loan Programs Office
- Office of Electricity
- Office of International Affairs
- Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains
- Office of Nuclear Energy
- Office of Policy
- Office of Science
- Office of Technology Transitions
- Within the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management:
- Office of Carbon Management
- Office of Resource Sustainability
- Within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy:
- Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office
- Geothermal Technologies Office
- Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office
- Solar Energy Technologies Office
- Vehicle Technologies Office
- Wind Energy Technologies Office.
The DOE sponsoring offices connect with other federal agencies, RD&D awardees that join through CMC funding opportunities, and the Critical Materials Innovation Hub.
Get Involved
Others outside of the U.S. government can join the CMC by being funded through a CMC opportunity. This is how the CMC will grow.
The CMC is coordinating RD&D programs and funding opportunities across DOE to form the basis of the membership, convening investments across the entire innovation ecosystem.
Funding Opportunities
- $19.5 Million for a Secure Domestic Supply Chain of Critical Minerals and Materials
- Smart Manufacturing Technologies for Material and Process Innovation
- Regional Scale Collaboration To Facilitate a Domestic Critical Minerals Future: Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals Initiative
- Electronics Scrap Recycling Advancement Prize
- Critical Materials Accelerator
- Project Selections for FOA 3105: Critical Material Innovation, Efficiency, and Alternatives
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Advanced Processing of Critical Minerals and Materials for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Front-End Engineering and Design Studies for Production of Critical Minerals and Materials From Coal-Based Resources
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Rare Earth Element Demonstration Facility
- Lab Call for Critical Materials Supply Chain Research Facility
- Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize
- Lithium Extraction and Conversion from Geothermal Brines
Resources
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