Critical Minerals & Materials Accelerator (CMMA)

Critical Minerals & Materials Accelerator — Topic 2: Semiconductor Material Refining

Connects research teams and institutions for Critical Minerals & Materials Accelerator : Semiconductor in materials science, semiconductors, and energy systems.

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The Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator (CMMA) is a Funding Opportunity Announcement issued by the DOE Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Topic 2 of the FY2026 CMMA FOA — designated DE-TA2-0003589, under parent notice DE-FOA-0003588 — funds novel processes to refine semiconductor-critical materials, specifically gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), and silicon carbide (SiC). The United States currently relies heavily on foreign sources for these materials, which are foundational to semiconductor fabrication, power electronics, and advanced defence systems; Topic 2 aims to build domestic refining capacity at competitive cost and scale.

Eligible applicants include universities, non-profit research organisations, for-profit companies, and national laboratories operating in the United States; individual applicants are not eligible. A Letter of Intent was due April 24, 2026, and the full application deadline is June 25, 2026, submitted via eere-exchange.energy.gov (the DOE-EERE portal, cross-posted on Grants.gov). Award amounts are not specified on the portal landing page; definitive figures for individual awards, cost-share requirements, performance period, and evaluation criteria are in the FOA PDF document (not extracted at ingest). The later full-application deadline for Topic 2 (June 25) compared to Topic 1 (May 29) allows additional time for teams developing refining process demonstrations.

Successful Topic 2 proposals are expected to demonstrate a technically credible refining pathway specific to Ga, Ge, or SiC, with a clear line of sight to domestic scale-up. Teams with existing laboratory-scale separation or crystal-growth processes and partnerships with U.S. semiconductor manufacturers or defence supply chain participants are well positioned. AMMTO evaluates proposals for both technical merit and the degree to which the work advances a supply chain that is currently dependent on a small number of foreign producers.