Funding
The following is a non-exhaustive list of funding sources. We’ll add more links over time, so keep coming back! If you know if other funders or links, please contact us.
Current Opportunities and Upcoming Deadlines
| Funding Opportunity | Brief Description | Funding Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| AccelerateIP | AccelerateIP, is designed to support hundreds of innovative startups to grow and protect their ideas and intellectual assets. Stream 2 has up to $25,000 available towards IP strategy development costs and Stream 3 has up to $60,000 available towards IP implementation. | Stream 1: IP Education and Awareness, is continuous intake Stream 2: IP Mentorship, is continuous intake |
| Ignite | Need help to commercialize your research? Teams of academia and industry can receive up to $300,000 for research and development. | Currently closed (may reopen) |
| Venture Acceleration Program | Need help to commercialize your research? Teams of academia and industry can receive up to $300,000 for research and development. | Continuous intake |
| Wah-ila-toos: Clean energy initiatives in Indigenous, rural and remote communities | helps early-stage entrepreneurs grow their companies. Led by experienced mentors, this ongoing 6-12 month program offers a disciplined approach to growing and taking your business to market. | Continuous intake |
| Applied Research and Development Grants | The initiative’s goal is to provide funding for clean energy projects to reduce the use of diesel for heat and/or power in Indigenous, rural and remote communities. | Continuous intake |
| Idea to Innovation | Applied Research and Development (ARD) grants support research and development (R&D) projects led by college researchers in partnership with private, public or not-for-profit organizations while encouraging collaboration with universities and/or other colleges. | Continuous intake |
| Partnership Engage Grants | The objective of Idea to Innovation (I2I) grants is to accelerate the pre-competitive development of promising technology originating from the university and college sector, and to promote its transfer to a new or established Canadian company. I2I grants provide funding to college and university faculty members to support research and development projects with recognized technology transfer potential. | 15 December 2024; 15 March 2025 |
| Insight Grants | These grants provide short-term and timely support for partnered research at a single partner organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sector. | 01 October 2024 |
| Increasing equity, diversity and inclusion in the Canadian space sector | Insight Grants support research excellence in the social sciences and humanities. Funding is available to both emerging scholars and established scholars for research initiatives of two to five years. | 02 October 2024; 07 February, 03 October 2025; 06 February 2026 |
| Connection Grants | aims to offer under-represented groups an opportunity to increase their level of applied knowledge in space science and technology and promote their professional development in order to increase equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in Canada’s space workforce. | 01 November 2024, 01 February 2025 |
| Insight Development Grants | These grants support events and outreach activities geared toward short-term, targeted knowledge mobilization initiatives. | 02 February 2025 |
| College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF) | CCSIF grants are intended to foster community innovation by connecting the talent, facilities and capabilities of Canada’s colleges with the research needs of community organizations, and facilitate collaborative and innovative research in the social sciences, humanities, health sciences, natural sciences and engineering research fields. | 01 March 2025 |
Ongoing Opportunities and Permanent Links
Government of Canada
NSERC College funding
- NSERC Colleges site
- Applied Research and Development (ARD) Grants
- Applied Research and Development (ARD) grants support a wide range of research and development (R&D) projects undertaken by college researchers with partner organizations (in the private, public or not-for-profit sectors) whose cash contributions are recognized for cost sharing with NSERC.Applied Research and Development projects can focus on any point in the research-to-innovation spectrum.
- College and Community Social Innovation Fund
- CCSIF grants enable colleges to increase their capacity to work with communities, with the goal of developing partnerships that foster community innovation in areas such as the integration of vulnerable populations, community development, education and training, climate change, environmental degradation, and health and well-being.
- NSERC Upcoming Deadlines
- NSERC Upcoming Events
CIHR
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is Canada’s federal funding agency for health research. Composed of 13 Institutes, we collaborate with partners and researchers to support the discoveries and innovations that improve our health and strengthen our health care system.
SSHRC
The Social Sciences and Research Council supports post secondary-based research, research training and knowledge mobilization activities in the social sciences and humanities.
IRAP
The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) funds small and medium-sized businesses develop and commercialize technologies.
SSF
The Strategic Science Fund (SSF) is a new approach to improve the effectiveness of federal investments in supporting third-party science and research organizations (TPOs). Eligible recipients are not-for-profit organizations incorporated in Canada (federally or provincially) that cannot access other federal funding programs.
MITACS
Mitacs funds students from all Canadian post-secondary institutions to participate in research.
SDTC
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) funds Canadian companies to develop and deploy clean technology, to help solve some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges: climate change, clean air, clean water and clean soil.
Province of British Columbia
Columbia Basin Trust
To help residents and communities take action on issues that are important to them, The Trust offers a great selection of grants and programs. The Trust serves the region consisting of all the watersheds that flow into the Columbia River in Canada. The region encompasses nearly 80,000 square kilometers in southeastern British Columbia and has a population of 164,647 people
ICE Fund and SDTC Joint Call Funding Partnership
British Columbia and the Government of Canada are working together to spur the development and commercialization of new technologies that will reduce emissions and create jobs for Canadians and to advance B.C.’s clean energy sector.
Innovate BC
As a Crown Agency, Innovate BC represents the Government of British Columbia. Each year we select 6-8 research projects to receive up to $300,000, injecting over $1M into market-changing innovations.
ARC
The Advanced Research and Commercialization program in British Columbia is a fundamental part of the Province’s CleanBC Go Electric Program, designed to support the development of companies operating in the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sector, and to encourage international investment in the ZEV sector in B.C.
BC Hydro
ETSI-BC
The Economic Trust of the Southern Interior (ETSI-BC) uses its $50 million endowment from the Province of BC work with the region’s local governments, economic development practitioners, non-profit business support organizations, post-secondary institutions, industry associations, and accelerators to grow and diversify our region’s economy by providing grant funding on an ‘intake’ basis throughout the year.
Project Zero
The Project Zero Incubator provides early-stage business ideas and organizations from across BC with access to coaching, workshops, and resources to help them get established.
Economic Development Funding
Food Security
Daymark Foundation
The Daymark Foundation aims to transform the way we think about and address mental health in Canada in three priority areas: women’s mental health, bipolar disorder, food security. https://www.daymarkfoundation.ca/
United Way British Columbia Food Infrastructure Grant
United Way British Columbia and the Ministry of Health are looking to collaborate with community food-based organizations to address the unique food access and availability challenges of rural, remote and Indigenous communities. This one-time Food Infrastructure Grant will fund the development, implementation, or improvement of food infrastructure to support year-round, long-term procurement, storage and distribution of fresh, traditional, and other food and enhance community well-being. https://uwbc.ca/foodsecurity/