Mining Contracts

Under the MINER Act of 2006, the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) was charged with developing and adapting new mine safety technology and expediting its commercial availability through a contracts and grants program. With consideration for market drivers and barriers, current state-of-the-art technologies in mining versus other sectors, regulations that may potentially impact industry-specific technological innovations, and the conditions surrounding mine disasters, OMSHR identified priority areas based on the current technology gaps.  A strategic approach was then developed that considered such factors as the financial investment necessary to address each gap, the likelihood of resulting technology developments to comply with regulatory requirements, assistance available from other government agencies, and the type of incentives necessary for the private sector to begin commercializing the technology. As a result of these efforts, as of 2016, OMSHR had awarded more than 120 technology development and commercialization contracts or interagency agreements in its execution of the MINER Act. Candidates for these contracts are principally solicited in the form of concept papers by way of Broad Agency Announcements on the Mining Program's Funding Opportunities page.

OMSHR has also awarded over 15 capacity-building contracts, which are devoted to building the capacity of our nation’s workforce to address critical health and safety problems in U.S. mines—specifically, in the fields of ventilation and ground control, which were identified as root causes for five different mining disasters since 2006. Capacity-building contracts help to produce graduates with advanced degrees in mining and minerals engineering, and help to develop tenure-track faculty performing research in these areas. As of 2016, OMSHR had provided capacity-building funding in ventilation (9 different universities, 11 different faculty members) and ground control engineering (8 different universities, 10 different faculty members), and had supported a total of 134 graduate students, 65 current students, and  64 MS or PhD graduating degree holders since the program’s inception in 2009.

Contracts List

Note: Click on the column headings to sort ascending/descending or use the search box to narrow results by keyword. Left click the tabs to view current or completed contracts.