The National Science Foundation has awarded a $45 million investment to advance water innovation in the Great Lakes region, reinforcing efforts to transform wastewater into a strategic resource. The funding supports the next phase of Great Lakes RENEW (Recovery of Energy, Nutrients, Critical Elements, and Water), a multi-stakeholder collaboration led by Current and involving key partners such as Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago.
The initiative aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies capable of extracting clean water, valuable materials and energy from wastewater streams. This latest three-year award builds on an initial $15 million grant received in 2024, when RENEW was designated as an NSF Regional Innovation Engine. If key milestones are achieved, the program could unlock up to $160 million in total funding over a decade.
The new phase will focus on scaling solutions from laboratory research to real-world deployment, while expanding collaboration across industry, academia and regional stakeholders. It also seeks to strengthen the innovation ecosystem by supporting business creation, technology validation and infrastructure development linked to water resource recovery.
Operating across six states, the initiative initially focused on Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin, with planned expansion into Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. The program is designed to translate scientific advances into deployable solutions that can enhance regional economic competitiveness while contributing to more resilient supply chains.
A central component of RENEW’s work is the recovery of critical raw materials—such as lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements—from industrial wastewater. These materials are essential for sectors including electronics, energy storage and advanced manufacturing. At the same time, municipal wastewater offers opportunities to reclaim nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus for agricultural reuse, as well as to harness embedded thermal and chemical energy.
Argonne National Laboratory plays a pivotal role in advancing separation technologies, including membrane, biological and electrochemical systems designed to isolate and recover valuable components from complex water matrices. Its facilities support the scaling of innovations from laboratory research to pilot and industrial applications.
“Argonne has laid the groundwork, demonstrated early breakthroughs, and now — with significant NSF investment — is positioned to scale technologies and validate them through Argonne-supported multi-scale test beds,” said Junhong Chen. “Argonne shares RENEW’s goal to advance technologies to the marketplace, eventually putting these innovations into the hands of people across the U.S. and globally.”
Beyond technology development, RENEW is also prioritizing workforce readiness. Through partnerships with educational institutions, the initiative is creating pathways to train professionals for an increasingly digital and AI-enabled water sector. According to Meridith Bruozas, “By bringing Argonne’s strengths in science, technology, AI and workforce development to this regional effort, we can help prepare the next generation for water careers and ensure workers at every stage have clear routes into the growing, AI-enabled water economy.”
The investment forms part of a broader national strategy by the National Science Foundation to establish regional innovation engines, positioning water as a driver of economic growth and resource sustainability.
