Summary
Transparency in critical materials markets is essential to ensuring Department of Defense (DOD) readiness and to the national security of the United States. It’s also vital to protecting consumers and businesses from the economic costs that stem from supply chain disruptions.
However, price, supply, and demand information for critical materials is opaque and often flawed, making it difficult for producers, consumers, and investors to know the economic value and future supply of critical materials.
The DARPA Open Price Exploration for National security (OPEN) research and development program aims to develop forecasting technology to enable the market to better understand component-based pricing information and supply and demand for a range of critical commodities such as base metals, rare earth metals, and other materials.