The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) launched the American-Made Re-X Before Recycling Prize.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 03/03/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The prize is looking for innovations that could keep materials in use beyond a single life cycle and increase the recovery and reuse rate of end-of-use products. Extending the lifecycles of these products reduces the embodied energy and carbon of manufactured goods, strengthens regional manufacturing supply chains, increases U.S. security of supply, create jobs, and reduces environmental burdens related to landfilling, incineration, and extraction.
The $5.6 million, three phase prize is designed to stimulate innovation and private investment in circular economy approaches that valorize waste streams to develop diverse, integrated supply networks and contribute to a robust, environmentally sustainable economy. Competitors will identify opportunities and make progress towards implementing innovations in new or expanded supply chains in the United States that valorize end-of-use products by reusing, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, and/or repurposing them. The prize will support and amplify AMMTO’s efforts to ensure secure and sustainable U.S. supply chains for clean energy and to establish a circular economy for the goods economy.
Program Goal Requirements
Only submissions relevant to the goals of this program are eligible to compete. The Prize Administrator must conclude that all the following statements are true when applied to your submission:
- The proposed innovation enables a new or expands an existing supply chain that extend the lifetime of products or parts via re-using, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, and repurposing.
- The majority of activities that are described in and support the submission package are performed in the United States and have the potential to benefit the U.S. market.
- The proposed innovation will move the industry beyond its current state.
- The proposed innovation does not involve the lobbying of any federal, state, or local government office.
- The proposed innovation is based on fundamental technical principles and is consistent with a basic understanding of the U.S. market economy.
- The proposed innovation is not a standalone theoretical modeling and analysis efforts.
- The proposed innovation has a clear financial or supply chain path to implementation.
- The submission content sufficiently confirms the competitor’s intent to implement their innovation in a viable, U.S.-based Re-X supply chain in the near future. The commercial viability cannot solely depend on licensing fees of intellectual property.
Topic Areas
The Re-X Before Recycling Prize invites competitors to work on one of two categories: established or emerging waste streams.
- Established Waste Streams
- This topic area includes innovations focusing on how to utilize products that are currently available in U.S. waste streams. This topic area would include currently discarded products such as electrical devices, furnishings, consumer goods, and building materials. For insight into current waste stream compositions, refer to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling.
- Emerging Waste Streams
- This topic area includes innovations focusing on how to utilize products that will be available in the future in waste streams. For example, clean energy technologies such as wind, solar, and batteries must expand dramatically to reach the decarbonization goals resulting in waste at the end of their product lifespans. These products may not be available in current waste streams in large volumes but will be in the future.
Areas of Interest
Examples of innovations of interest include those that:
- Extend the lifespan of clean energy technologies. Some potential examples include refurbishing and installing solar panels or wind turbines in a new location if they still have useful life, interventions that extend the lifetime of batteries, and repurposing batteries for a second life in a different application.
- Extend the lifespan of manufactured products and parts. Some potential examples include the recovery of components from end-of-use devices, requalification, and re-use in new devices; refurbishment of discarded furniture to enable resale; reuse of foodservice items such as cups; recovery and repurposing of building materials.
- Replicate and improve upon approaches demonstrated in one location in new regions or locations. For example, establishment of a community re-use program in a new location modeled after a successful effort elsewhere or second of a kind demonstration that greatly expand the operation envelope of an innovation.
- Deploy new technologies, such as advanced sorting or more efficient processing of end-of-use products, to reduce costs and increase the number of Re-X products produced.
- Improve access to wastes and markets via improved data and analysis, logistics, and collection. Innovations may include effective outreach to consumers and entities within the supply chain, potentially drawing from social science approaches i.e., behavioral changes of consumers/actors in the supply chain, and not solely reliant on technological advancement. Innovations may also be based on increased insights from data and analysis.
Prize Structure
The Re-X Before Recycling Prize has three phases that will run from 2023 to 2025. During Phase 1, also called Identify!, competitors will identify new or expanded circular supply chain opportunities and the innovations needed to realize them and deliver community benefits. During Phase 2, called Prepare!, competitors will prepare to develop their innovation. During the final Phase 3, Develop!, competitors will continue to advance their idea toward implementation.
- Phase 1: Identify!
- In Phase 1, teams will identify a new or expanded Re-X supply chain opportunity including its potential community benefits and create a plan. Up to 20 winners will receive $50,000 in cash. Winners will also receive consulting support from a national laboratory (worth up to $5,000) to identify analysis that could help maximize their idea’s potential impact and benefits.
- To win Phase 1, teams will achieve the following:
- Opportunity & Innovation Identification: Identify an innovation that, if implemented in a new or expanded Re-X supply chain, would deliver substantial environmental, economic, and community benefits.
- Plan development: Develop a plan to advance the innovation from its current state towards implementation in a viable Re-X supply chain.
- Phase 2: Prepare!
- In Phase 2, which is open to new competitors, as well as participants from Phase 1, teams will further advance their idea and plan. Up to 10 winners will receive $150,000 in cash and up to $100,000 in technical assistance for analysis from a national laboratory that could inform enhancements to increase the idea’s impacts and benefits.
- To win Phase 2, teams will achieve the following:
- Deepen Insight: Leverage national laboratory expert analysis, consultation, and other resources to deepen insight into environmental, economic, and community benefits of the innovation, plan, and Re-X supply chain.
- Plan Refinement: Based on progress made and insights gained, refine your plan to advance your innovation towards implementation in a supply chain.
- Network Activation: Cultivate a network of mentors and partners to help advance the proposed innovation and understand how to increase the potential positive impacts on communities.
- Phase 3: Develop!
- Phase 3 is only open to selected winners from Phase 2. Phase 3 winners will demonstrate substantial progress towards implementing their innovation in a viable Re-X supply chain that will continue beyond the prize period. Up to four winning teams will receive $500,000 in cash.
- To win Phase 3, teams will achieve the following:
- Plan Execution: Demonstrate that you are advancing your innovation by executing your plan.
- Network Development and Community Engagement: Cement ecosystem partnerships through community engagement to ensure you can implement your supply chain innovation.
- Post-Contest Planning: Develop a long-term plan to implement your innovation in a viable Re-X supply chain and provide a compelling case that there is, or will soon be, sufficient resources to keep the effort going beyond this prize contest. Incorporate insights gained from analysis performed a national lab to improve your innovation and maximize benefits from realizing the supply chain.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility for Phase 1: Identify!
- Eligible participants for Phase 1: Identify!:
- Can include individuals, teams of individuals, private entities (for-profits and nonprofits), and nonfederal government entities (such as states, counties, tribes, municipalities, and academic institutions).
- May submit a maximum of two submissions. If more than two submissions are received from a competitor, the two most recently submitted submissions will be considered. Only one submission per competitor can advance to Phase 2: Prepare!.
- Can be partners on multiple submissions but may only be the lead competitor on one funded submission. Note: The cash prize award will be paid to the lead competitor as identified in the submission, if selected.
- Eligible participants for Phase 1: Identify!:
- Eligibility for Phase 2: Prepare!
- Eligible participants to compete in Phase 2: Prepare!:
- Can include winner and nonwinners from Phase 1: Identify! as well as new competitors.
- Must be private entities or nonfederal government entities. Individuals or groups of individuals are not eligible to compete.
- Must form a legal entity to participate in Phase 2: Prepare! if they were an individual winner from Phase 1: Identify!
- Eligible participants to compete in Phase 2: Prepare!:
- Eligibility for Phase 3: Develop!
- Eligible competitors in Phase 3: Develop!:
- Can only include the winning private entities or nonfederal government entities of Phase 2: Prepare!
- Must be a private entity or nonfederal government entity. Individuals or groups of individuals are not eligible to compete.
- Eligible competitors in Phase 3: Develop!:
- Prize Eligibility
- The competition is open to individuals, private entities (for-profits and nonprofits), and nonfederal government entities (such as states, counties, tribes, municipalities, and academic institutions) are subject to the following requirements:
- An individual prize competitor (who is not competing as a member of a group) must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident.
- A group of individuals competing as one team may win, provided that the online account holder of the submission is a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. Individuals competing as part of a team may participate if they are legally authorized to work in the United States.
- Private entities must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
- Academic institutions must be based in the United States.
- DOE employees, employees of sponsoring organizations, members of their immediate families (e.g., spouses, children, siblings, or parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the prize.
- Individuals who worked at DOE (federal employees or support service contractors) within six months prior to the submission deadline of any contest are not eligible to participate in any prize contests in this program.
- Federal entities and federal employees are not eligible to participate in any portion of the prize.
- NREL employees directly involved in the administration of the prize are not eligible to participate in any prize contest in this program.
- NREL employees not involved in the administration of the prize and all other national lab employees, including laboratory researchers, may participate as private individuals, provided they do not use their facilities at the national laboratories.
- Entities and individuals publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government, such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participating in Federal programs, are not eligible to compete.
- The competition is open to individuals, private entities (for-profits and nonprofits), and nonfederal government entities (such as states, counties, tribes, municipalities, and academic institutions) are subject to the following requirements:
For more information, visit DOE.
