ARPA-E Archived Funding Opportunities

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input for potential future ARPA-E research programs focused on innovative technologies and approaches for resource exploration, discovery, appraisal, mining, and processing of critical minerals. Goals of the potential programs could include:

ARPA-E is seeking information from universities, non-governmental organizations, small businesses, large businesses, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), and government-owned/government-operated (GOGO) organizations regarding such transformative and implementable technologies not currently deployed for mineral extraction to facilitate the future mining of critical minerals.

Areas Not of Interest for Responses to this RFI:

Any potential program would be focused on future resource discovery, appraisal, mining, and processing of critical minerals. Approaches not of interest include:

• Incremental improvements to existing technology;
• Electrification of existing mineral handling and beneficiation systems/circuits;
• Recycling of critical metals from waste sources that are not related to mining processes; and
• Topics directly related to the extraction of hydrocarbons (e.g., coal, oil, and gas).

RFI Guidelines:

PLEASE CAREFULLY REVIEW ALL RFI GUIDELINES BELOW.

Please note that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.

The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible formulation of future research programs. ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broad research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions.

No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. Respondents shall not include any information in the response to this RFI that could be considered proprietary or confidential.