Mines Ministry Recognizes Seven Centres of Excellence to work under the National Critical Mineral Mission

Newdelhi:1/8/25:The Ministry of Mines has recognized 7 institutes – 4 IITs and 3 R&D Labs – as Centres of Excellence (CoE) under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). This follows the approval granted by the Project Approval and Advisory Committee (PAAC) in its meeting held on 31.07.2025 under the co-chairmanship of Shri V.L. Kantha Rao, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, and Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST). The recognition of CoEs in an important step for fulfilling a key objective of the NCMM, which is research and technology development in critical minerals.

Critical raw materials form the crucial supply chain for emerging sectors of clean energy and mobility transition, in addition to advanced technology and strategic sectors like electronics, defence, space, etc. In order to develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies in an end-to-end systems approach, it is essential to conduct R&D so as to reach higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), of TRL 7 / 8 pilot plant and pre-commercial demonstration. The CoEs will undertake innovative and transformational research to strengthen and advance the nation’s science and technology capability in the area of critical minerals. The CoEs will be funded on a project basis by various government R&D schemes, industry and venture investors.

The names of institutes/ labs which have been recognized as CoEs under NCMM are given below:

1. IIT Bombay
2. IIT Hyderabad
3. IIT – ISM Dhanbad
4. IIT Roorkee
5. CSIR – IMMT, Bhubaneswar
6. CSIR – NML, Jamshedpur
7. NFTDC, Hyderabad

Each CoE will operate as a consortium, on a Hub & Spoke model, to leverage R&D in critical minerals and pooling the core competence of each constituent under one umbrella. The CoE (Hub Institute) was mandated, as per the CoE guidelines, to bring in at least two industry partners and at least two R&D/ academic partners in the consortium. The 7 recognized CoEs have together brought in around 80 industry and academic/ R&D spokes.

As part of the process to recognize CoEs, the Ministry had earlier called for proposals from eligible institutes and had undertaken an elaborate two-tier evaluation and approval process.