Unlocking New Levels of Output and Capacity for Key Subsurface Resources (UNLOCK)
ARPA-E funds transformative technologies to improve recovery, flow pathways, and water management for subsurface resources, including oil, gas, geothermal energy, and minerals.
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Funder: Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy
Due Dates: November 10, 2026, 5 PM ET (Concept paper questions) | November 20, 2026, 9:30 AM ET (Concept papers)
Funding Amounts: $3 million–$5 million federal share per award; anticipated three-year projects; $45 million estimated program funding
Summary: UNLOCK supports transformative stimulation and enhanced recovery technologies to double recovery from low-permeability subsurface resources without increasing per-unit costs or wastewater.
Key Information: Projects must include laboratory validation and a well-scale field trial, with a field site and site operator identified.
Description
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) runs UNLOCK to improve extraction of energy and critical resources from low-permeability formations. The program targets oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, minerals, coalbed methane, and other subsurface resources. Its goal is to double per-well recovery efficiency while maintaining or reducing per-unit production costs and wastewater volumes relative to state-of-the-art methods.
Projects must integrate stimulation and enhanced recovery, with at least one novel, transformative approach, supported by sensing and modeling. Technologies of interest include low-water or waterless stimulation, advanced recovery fluids, engineered proppants, and advanced diagnostics. Laboratory experiments and numerical validation must lead to field testing under realistic geological and operational conditions. ARPA-E seeks applied R&D with disruptive potential, rather than incremental improvements or basic research.
