Our vision is to enhance and expedite the impact of research ongoing at the University of Kentucky, so The Strategic Materials and Recovery Technologies (SMaRT) Center may be established as a regional and national center of excellence for the recovery of critical and strategic materials in a sustainable and socially responsible manner. The vision of this center is to close the loop of the circular economy by providing a cross-disciplinary center of technical excellence focused on A) recovery B) processing C) purification and D) extraction of essential energy supporting materials.

It is anticipated that this center will transcend the silos of conventional disciplines such as mining chemical engineering, manufacturing, logistics, and economics. Broadly defined, the purpose of this center will be focused on providing modern society with key materials via “resource” engineering from primary and secondary sources. The objective of this center will be 3-fold, A) develop technologies to overcome critical gaps to enhance the stability and sustainability of critical energy-dependent materials supply B) engage strategic partners to commercialize and scale technologies into the marketing place, and C) disseminate knowledge and skills through training, education and workforce development in the nascent field of “resource recovery” engineering.