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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT) grant program which will provide $58 million in funding to accelerate chemical production using domestically sourced alternative and waste feedstocks. ASPECT will support work involving chemicals that offer advantages in terms of performance or cost, or that offer benefits to America’s foreign trade or national security. The proposed chemicals can be either conventional or bio-advantaged chemicals. Concept papers are due by October 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

What is the purpose of ASPECT?

The ASPECT program is designed to rapidly advance innovative chemical production technologies. These technologies aim to leverage America's vast biomass and waste resources to strengthen the nation's chemical supply chain and enhance global competitiveness by developing innovative and cost-effective technology pathways towards affordable chemicals.

ASPECT seeks to reduce time to market by moving projects from laboratory research to pre-pilot scale testing with two primary topic areas, BENCH ASPECT and Pre-pilot ASPECT.

Who is eligible to apply?

Entities eligible to be prime recipients and subrecipients include: for-profit entities, non-profit entities, state and local government entities, and Indian Tribes.

Institutions of higher education may apply as a prime recipient and a subrecipient for Topic Area 1 and only as a subrecipient for Topic Area 2.

Entities only eligible as subrecipients include: DOE federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), non-DOE FFRDCs, and federal research agencies.

Applications under both topic areas must include at least one for-profit industry entity as either the prime recipient or as a subrecipient. 

What are the two project topic areas?

The NOFO is divided into two topic areas designed to provide different on-ramps for technologies at different stages of development. Both topic areas target process technologies that convert acceptable feedstocks into chemicals that have advantages in performance, cost, and/or trade and national security.

BENCH ASPECT

Topic Area 1 supports R&D of new technologies for producing chemicals from alternative feedstocks, moving beyond proof-of-concept to bench and pre-pilot scale.

Pre-pilot ASPECT

Topic Area 2 provides an on-ramp for technologies ready to move from R&D to full pre-pilot scale and operations.  Projects applying to Topic Area 2 should aim to advance their technology to design, construct, and operate pre-pilot scale facilities.

Acceptable feedstocks include

• Lignocellulosic
• Algae
• Organic Wet Waste
• Sorted MSW
• Food Waste
• Biogas
• Grain Starch
• Oilseed Crops
• C&D Waste
• Waste Carbon Dioxide
• Biointermediate

What funding is available?

The ASPECT program has a total funding amount of $58,000,000 and anticipates funding up to 7 Bench ASPECT projects ranging from $2,000,000 to $10,000,000, and up to three Pre-Pilot ASPECT projects ranging from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000.

A match of 20%-50% of the total project costs is required dependent upon topic area and phase.

What is the program timeline?

Concept papers for the ASPECT program must be submitted by October 9, 2026, to be eligible to submit a Stage 1 full application, which is due December 1, 2026. ASPECT Stage 2 applications will be due on February 12, 2027.

Applicants should expect to receive selection notification by April 8, 2027.

The ASPECT NOFO can be found here.

For more information on this grant or how to apply with Morrison’s assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.