NSF STRIDE Tech Metal Transformation Challenge

The NSF STRIDE Tech Metal Transformation Challenge is an NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships prize competition designed to recover critical metals from domestic waste streams. It is the inaugural STRIDE Ventures competition and focuses on e-waste, spent batteries, and industrial residues, with co-design support from Germany's SPRIND and reference-material input from the U.S. Naval Research Lab, IBM, and Aurubis. The competition runs for 34 months in three stages. Stage 1 can award up to $2 million over 10 months to as many as eight teams, Stage 2 can reach $2.5 million over 12 months to as many as six teams, and Stage 3 can reach $3 million over 12 months to as many as four finalists. The record gives a total ceiling of $7.5 million per finalist and lists a January 15, 2026 deadline that has already passed. The challenge is open to for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, and research organizations, but not individuals. Teams that can combine metals recovery, scale-up discipline, and practical separation methods are the natural fit, especially if they can work within a staged competition where each phase has a clearer gate than a normal grant and where the technical problem is tied to domestic supply resilience.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.