A NATIONAL CRITICAL MATERIALS STRATEGY -- PERSPECTIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Dr. Wadia, Assistant Director for Clean Energy and Materials R&D at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will discuss the Obama Administration’s perspective on raw materials, critical minerals and materials, and those supply chains for which they are employed. Wadia will introduce and describe an active White House led interagency process in which the following core objectives are being pursued: (1) mitigating long term risks associated with the use of critical materials, (2) raw material supply diversification, (3) promoting a fully integrated domestic supply chain for areas of strategic importance like clean energy, (4) informing government and industry decision making, and (5) preparing a next generation workforce. He will review Administration actions already underway and forecast the government’s changing role in years ahead. Lastly, Wadia will describe new R&D activity in the mitigation of long term concerns, including future efforts in materials selection based on raw mineral abundance and scalability.