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Welcome back to the Supply Chain Sentinel, a monthly snapshot of all Critical Minerals, Materials, and Manufacturing (CM3) funding opportunities, upcoming events, and recent news.
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
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 Recently, CM3 and its parent office, the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI), announced $500 million for seven projects that will expand critical minerals and materials processing, battery manufacturing, and recycling capacity in the United States. The selected projects will advance the Trump Administration’s agenda to strengthen America’s domestic critical minerals and materials supply chains, reduce reliance on foreign sources, bolster national security, and advance American energy dominance.
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 Last week, CM3 and CMEI launched the $16 million Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies (PROSPECT) Planning Prize to grow America’s mining and critical minerals workforce. The prize challenges U.S. academic institutions to develop new programs in mining-related fields, with the goal of doubling the number of graduates and credentialed workers entering the workforce within two years.
Part of DOE’s broader PROSPECT initiative, this prize will help build the skilled workforce needed to strengthen American critical minerals supply chains and reduce reliance on foreign adversaries for the materials that power modern energy, manufacturing, and defense technologies.
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On Aug. 18 of this year, CMEI awarded funding to nine projects that will recover critical minerals, materials, and other valuable byproducts from industrial feedstocks at bench- and pilot-scale sites. These projects will strengthen domestic supply chains by advancing the recovery of a range of critical materials, including scandium, copper, antimony, and rare earth elements.
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On Sept. 9, CMEI announced $73 million for four projects that will create real-world testing grounds for next-generation mining technologies. Funded through DOE’s Mine of the Future initiative, these projects will provide platforms for testing and demonstrating new technologies in operating environments, moving promising innovations out of the lab and closer to commercial use. These four projects will test technologies ranging from automation and advanced sensing to electrification and mineral processing.
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Last month, DOE’s CMI Hub awarded $10 million to seven projects that are exploring new ways to recover and refine critical materials. These early-stage research projects will address technical challenges involving rare earth elements, gallium, copper, and other critical materials, with the goal of developing more refined production methods and strengthening domestic supply chains.
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Recently, CMEI awarded $75 million to five projects through the Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion initiative. The selected projects will develop pilot-scale facilities at industrial sites across the United States, streamlining domestic manufacturing supply chains and advancing the production of market-ready critical materials. These materials include rare earth elements and other strategically important minerals such as germanium, gallium, and aluminum.
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DOE’s REMADE Institute awarded $4.8 million to 10 projects that will advance promising materials recovery, remanufacturing, and recycling technologies. The selected projects will advance technologies from successful laboratory demonstrations to commercial deployment. By supporting technologies at one of the most challenging stages of development, these projects will reduce technical risk and accelerate the adoption of innovative materials solutions.
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CM3 congratulates the nine CM3-funded projects among this year’s R&D 100 Award winners. Several winning projects were led by DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which is supported by CM3's Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). Other winning projects were led by AMMTO-funded programs including the Critical Materials Innovation Hub at Ames National Laboratory and the ReCell Center at Argonne National Laboratory.
CM3 also would like to acknowledge ORNL’s Dr. Parans Paranthaman, a longtime contributing researcher to DOE’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub, for being named 2026 R&D 100 Researcher of the Year.
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