Advancing solutions for critical mineral production and recycling (Grant)

Apply for pump-priming funding to explore, test and validate disruptive solutions for critical mineral extraction, processing, recovery, reprocessing, recycling or re-mining, with the potential to transform UK critical mineral value chains. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding. The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £305,000. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC. Projects must start by 3 May 2027 and last for up to 12 months. Successful projects will be eligible to apply for funding for a further two years. Demand management Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. Further details are provided in the ‘Additional information’ section UKRI Critical Minerals: From Research to Industry (CMR2i) programme The CMR2i programme is a £20 million investment delivered through the UKRI Advanced Manufacturing priority programme. It aims to strengthen the UK’s critical and growth minerals value chains, spanning exploration, extraction, processing, recycling, and re-mining, in line with the ambitions of the UK Critical Minerals Strategy . CMR2i focuses on mineral resources and capabilities where the UK has clear strategic and economic opportunities to strengthen domestic supply chains and establish or expand key stages of the critical minerals value chain within the UK. The programme prioritises increasing the recovery, processing, recycling and supply of critical and growth minerals from emerging deposits, co-products and by-products, waste streams, and legacy mine sites. Through building the UK’s mineral capabilities, CMR2i aims to support a more secure, circular and sustainable supply of critical and growth minerals, underpinning the growth, resilience and global competitiveness of UK Advanced Manufacturing and other UK Industrial Strategy priority sectors. The programme will be delivered through three pillars, as follows: • applied strategic research • research to innovation • industrial pilots You can find further information about the CMR2i programme in the ‘Additional information’ section. Aim This investment is part of the applied strategic research pillar of the CMR2i programme. Through this funding opportunity we will fund ambitious projects that accelerate the development and validation of transformative solutions across the UK’s critical and growth minerals value chains. This includes innovative technologies, processes and methodologies for sustainable and efficient extraction, processing, recovery, reprocessing, recycling and re-mining of critical and growth minerals with explicit relevance to UK Advanced Manufacturing frontier industries. There will be two phases to this funding opportunity. Phase one Phase one will support small ‘pump-priming’ activities that foster ambitious and innovative approaches, enabling the exploration, testing and proof-of-concept demonstration of novel concepts and solutions, while developing the evidence needed to understand and support their commercial, regulatory, environmental, and socio-economic viability. This phase will identify opportunities with the greatest potential to transform critical and growth minerals supply chains through accelerated progression towards industrial deployment. Phase two Phase two will support rapid advancement of the most promising solutions developed during phase one towards higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), accelerating their progression towards deployment. This phase will also support building the commercial, regulatory, environmental and socioeconomic evidence base needed to derisk future investment, adoption and deployment. Only phase one projects will be eligible to apply for phase two funding. Funding for phase two will be awarded through a competitive process, with projects assessed on the transformative potential of their phase one outcomes and their ability to deliver significant economic, environmental and industrial impact for the UK. Further details of requirements for phase two funding will be included in the phase two funding opportunity, which we anticipate will be published in summer 2027. Applications are currently being invited for the phase one projects under the applied strategic research pillar. Scope Critical and growth minerals are essential to the UKs advanced manufacturing sector, clean energy technologies, defence capabilities and digital infrastructure. Critical minerals are those that are of high economic importance but face significant supply risks, whilst growth minerals are minerals essential to the UK’s Industrial Strategy sectors that are expected to experience strong future demand. Global demand for these minerals is increasing rapidly as countries invest in advanced technologies and the net zero transition. However, supply chains for many minerals remain highly geographically concentrated, creating vulnerabilities to geopolitical disruption, market instability and other external shocks. Strengthening the

This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . Who is eligible to apply This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. We: • encourage interdisciplinary research and collaborations with other UK organisations • welcome applications from individuals at any career stage, subject to NERC eligibility criteria You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead. Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement a project co-lead (international) (previously co-investigator) can be based in a Norwegian institution. All other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) should be included as project partners. This includes industry partners. Project partners must fund their own involvement. UKRI will only fund minor incidental expenses, such as some travel costs, if needed for project partners. Sub-contracting aspects of the work, meaning particular goods and services, to non-eligible institutions is possible, in line with the NERC research grants and fellowships handbook . Resubmissions We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI. Find out more about UKRI’s resubmission policy . Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: • career breaks • support for people with caring responsibilities • flexible working • alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Click here to start an application on the UKRI Funding Service: https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1399/apply/1431 Stage one: Notification of intent (NoI) There is a mandatory NoI stage for this UKRI funding opportunity. You must submit your NoI by 1 December 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. If a full application is submitted without a prior NoI by the stated deadline, it will be rejected. Submit a NoI . The NoI form requests details of the proposed research team and a summary of the proposed research project. This information will not be assessed but will be used to support planning for the assessment panel. Information provided at the NoI stage is not considered final, so you may amend project details as you develop your proposal ahead of the full application stage. Additional partners and project co-leads who meet UKRI eligibility requirements may also be included in the full application. Feedback will not be given for the NoI, unless we have concerns regarding eligibility or the fit to the funding opportunity scope. Stage two: full application We are running this funding opportunity on the UKRI Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application. Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI. To apply Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page. • Confirm you are the project lead • Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. • Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page. • Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office. • Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing. • Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI. Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. When including images, you must: • provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit) • insert each new image on a new line • u