We are pleased to officially launch Alliance Missions: Critical Minerals research, a new and exciting challenge to strengthen Canada’s position as a global supplier of choice for critical minerals that are central to major global industries. This call will support the goals of the 2023 Federal Budget and Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy to grow Canadian expertise at every point along the critical minerals value chain – from mining to processing to recycling – for the fifteen critical minerals prioritized in the Critical Minerals Strategy.

These grants will provide support ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 per year, for a duration of three years, and will encourage interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects. Projects must involve at least one partner organization that can be recognized for cost sharing.

Alliance Missions grants are intended to provide support for activities that will:

• advance Canadian knowledge, models, processes, tools and technologies to optimize efficiency, minimize environmental impacts, and/or support data-driven decisions along domestic critical mineral value chains, from exploration to recycling (e.g., geological and economic modelling of critical mineral deposits, flowsheets, life-cycle analyses, etc.); and/or
• develop efficient options to advance a domestic circular economy with less reliance on primary mineral resources through mine reclamation and/or critical mineral recycling or reprocessing (e.g., mining and industrial waste, end-of-life products, etc.); and/or
• support the development of best practices in technology, innovation and collaborative ventures (e.g., best practices to advance vertical integration across the sector, etc.).

The deadline to submit a Letter of Intent is September 7th, 2023, and to submit the full application is November 9th, 2023. Please read the program description for more details. If you have any questions, please contact Alliance-Missions@NSERC-CRSNG.GC.CA.