Golden Field Office

Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Notice of Funding Opportunity

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…

Agency
Golden Field Office
Deadline
Jul 23, 2026 (11 days left)
Award ceiling
$3,000,000
Award floor
$1
Total program funding
$69,000,000
Expected awards
44
Opportunity #
DE-FOA-0003589
CFDA
81.086
Cost sharing
Required
EnergyUnrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

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About this opportunity

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.

Who can apply

Please see section II.A. in the NOFO

How to apply

Applications for federal grants are submitted through grants.gov under opportunity number DE-FOA-0003589. Before you start, confirm your organization's eligibility, register in SAM.gov if you haven't already, and note the response deadline of Jul 23, 2026. AutoGrantHunter helps you decide whether this opportunity is worth pursuing before you invest in a full application.

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