Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials
Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials supports early-career researchers’ collaborative basic science projects on sustainable mining, materials, and recycling to advance a low-carbon energy system.
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Funder: Research Corporation for Science Advancement
Due Dates: September 7, 2024 (2024 team proposals) | September 13, 2025 (2025 team proposals) | March 15, 2027 (2027 participation, full consideration)
Funding Amounts: 2025 team awards: $60,000 direct funding per team member, plus overhead, for one year
Summary: Supports new cross-disciplinary collaborations advancing sustainable mining, material design, manufacturing, and recycling for a low-carbon energy system.
Key Information: Team proposals are developed during Scialog meetings by Fellows who have not previously collaborated.
Description
Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials is a 2024–2027 Scialog series run by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, co-sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with additional support from The Kavli Foundation. It brings together approximately 50 early-career chemists, materials scientists, geologists, ecologists, engineers, and energy system modelers to generate high-risk, high-impact basic science projects.
The initiative addresses pollution and global warming from petroleum-based materials and polymers, alongside environmental damage associated with mining critical resources for clean energy technologies. Its scope includes synthetic polymers, coatings, plastics, bio-inspired materials, critical minerals and metals, and rare earth elements. Projects examine the entire material lifecycle: sustainable acquisition, design and manufacture with less waste, and recovery or recycling after use. Meetings emphasize dialogue, new collaborations, environmental stewardship, and energy-system decarbonization.
