Rio Tinto is a global metals and mining company that funds research, start-up ventures, and innovation partnerships across energy-transition materials such as lithium, aluminium, copper, and iron ore. View RioTinto Alcan's website for more information.
Rio Tinto is best known as a global mining and metals company, but its website also shows a real external funding role through research funding, venture investing, and accelerator support. The company works with universities, government research labs, start-ups, and industrial partners to advance technologies linked to decarbonisation, materials processing, and innovation.
The company states that it has committed $150 million to the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials, a research initiative led by Imperial College London. It also says it invests in start-ups, builds ventures of its own, and runs an accelerator program for early-stage founders. These activities indicate a discretionary and project-oriented funding approach rather than a traditional public grant model.
Rio Tinto’s site emphasizes partnerships with universities, governments, research institutions, and commercial innovators. The company frames this support as a way to test, develop, and scale technologies that can improve environmental performance and create new opportunities in the metals and mining sector.