The REMADE Institute, a 150 member public-private partnership established in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with an initial investment of $140 million, announced $4.86 million in new technology research, selecting 10 new research demonstration, verification and validation (DV&V) projects as part of the Institute’s latest round of funding.
REMADE’s new DV&V projects will demonstrate tools and technologies that are at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 and will reach TRL 7 by the end of their project. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) describe the various phases of technology development, with TRLs 4-7 typically referred to as the “Valley of Death” – the critical gap between early-stage research and commercial viability where promising innovations often fail to transition from the laboratory to the marketplace.
These new DV&V projects will not only address the Valley of Death for these technologies but will also increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness; strengthen the resilience of the domestic supply chain; decrease manufacturing energy consumption; and advance the Circular Economy by increasing the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling of critical minerals and rare earth elements, aluminum, textiles, electronics scrap, diesel engine blocks, steel and paper.
“By focusing REMADE’s investment on these projects, we are getting closer and closer to fully commercializing these novel technology solutions, which once fully implemented are capable of achieving significant positive energy, manufacturing, environmental, and economic impacts for us as a nation,” said REMADE chief executive officer Nabil Nasr.
This latest round of investment, the Institute’s seventh, is cost-shared between REMADE and the funding recipients. Of the 10 new projects, some involve new partners for REMADE. They will join the Institute’s existing partners, including industry innovators and academic researchers with Caterpillar, John Deere, Michelin, Nike, Adidas, MIT, RIT, Honda, Volvo, Yale University and many more.
REMADE chief technology officer Magdi Azer said it’s important for research institutes like REMADE to provide ongoing investment in technologies to ensure they advance through the Valley of Death, noting that REMADE had previously funded six prior Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
“This is exactly why the Manufacturing USA institutes were established in the first place more than a decade ago,” Azer said. “These new DV&V projects will, for example, explore better ways to recover total rare earth oxides from electronic scrap; utilize computer vision and AI to reduce the cost of electronics recycling; recover and recycle aerospace and automotive aluminum; repair diesel engine blocks; use secondary steel to produce new tires; improve paper recycling; expand textile recycling; and increase the circularity of new product designs.”
Following are the projects funded:
- Low-Cost Textile-to-Textile “SolvoGenesis” Recycling Validation at Scale – MacroCycle Technologies & Eastman Kodak.
- Component-Level Validation of Structural and Improved Non-Structural Secondary Aluminum Die Cast Alloys – Audubon Metals, The Ohio State University & North American Die Cast Association.
- Computer Vision and AI for the E-Cycling Receiving Process –Rochester Institute of Technology & Sunnking Sustainable Solutions & Tire.
- Test Demonstration Of Tire Cord Produced From High-Copper Content Scrap Steel – Missouri University of Science and Technology & Michelin USA.
- Industrial Validation of Biotechnologies for Recycled Fibers to Regain Fiber Quality and Increase Secondary Feedstock in High Value-Added Paper Grades – Western Michigan University & Graphic Packaging International.
- Technology Demonstration, Verification and Validation of REEgen’s Biological Critical Metal Recovery Technology – Rochester Institute of Technology & REEgen.
- Developing Enterprise-Grade CAD Tools to Integrate Circularity in New Product Designs – Rochester Institute of Technology, Trane Technologies.
- Recycling Aerospace Aluminum Scrap into High-Performance Wrought Sheet and Near-Net-Shape Squeeze Cast Components – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign & Loukus Technologies.
- High-Speed Laser Cladding Repair for Cast Iron Diesel Engine Blocks – Rochester Institute of Technology & Synergy Additive Manufacturing.
- Demonstration of Advanced Textile Sorting and Dismantling System – Rochester Institute of Technology & Goodwill of the Finger Lakes.
Published July 2026
