Energy Innovation Program – Advancing Canada’s clean energy future

• Expression of Interest (EOI)
• Full project proposal (FPP) for invited applicants
• A letter of contribution for each partner identified in the FPP

Who is eligible?

• Legal entities validly incorporated or registered in Canada
• For-profit and not-for-profit organizations, Canadian academic institutions, and utilities
• Provincial, territorial, regional and municipal governments and their departments and agencies where applicable
• Indigenous communities or governments, tribal councils or entities that fulfill a similar function, and national or regional Indigenous councils or tribal organizations
• For-profit or not-for-profit organizations majority owned and controlled by Indigenous people

Who is not eligible

• Federal government labs and other government departments do not qualify as eligible applicants, but may participate as project partners.

Eligible expenses

• Salaries and benefits for employees on the payroll of the recipient for the actual time spent on the project
• Training and workshops
• Professional, scientific, technical and contracting services
• Travel expenditures, including meals and accommodation, based on National Joint Council Rates, adjusted to reflect costs in Northern and remote areas where appropriate
• Capital expenditures and other direct project costs, including qualifying equipment, materials and products, laboratory and field supplies, data collection, printing and translation, facility rental, construction insurance, accreditation, licence fees and permits, honoraria, field testing services, overhead directly related to the project up to 15% of eligible expenditures, and GST, PST or HST net of any rebate

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Pre-development activities such as market analysis, feasibility studies, demand assessment, and site identification
• Full commercial operation
• Facilities built exclusively for an organization’s internal use
• Deferred maintenance costs
• NRCan funding cannot be used to pay for the federal government’s own internal operations or toward the acquisition of land, buildings, works, machinery and equipment or the construction or creation of assets for the federal government

• Projects may be prioritized at the EOI and FPP stages based on regional balance in Canada, strategic value and socio-economic considerations, and advancing IDEA in the natural resources sector.
• Projects may be prioritized if they serve a broad and identifiable user base.
• Projects may be prioritized if they implement open, transparent access policies, including published pricing and clear user intake processes.
• Projects may be prioritized if they implement an IP policy that does not restrict users’ agency over their own IP strategies, avoiding mechanisms such as rights of first refusal or other elements that could constrain independent decision-making.
• Projects may be prioritized if they partner with Canadian organizations when the project includes partnerships and demonstrate commercially reasonable efforts to support the Buy Canadian Policy.

• Review the Applicant guide to determine your eligibility to apply.
• Access the application portal and register or sign in with a Canadian bank account or using a GCKey.
• Complete and submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) via the application portal.
• If invited, complete and submit a Full project proposal (FPP).

• EOIs will be reviewed by a Technical Review Committee.
• EOI results may be an invitation to the FPP phase, an opportunity to re-submit after addressing issues or clarifications, or notice that the proposal is ineligible or misaligned with CFP objectives.
• FPPs will be reviewed by a Technical Review Committee, and successful projects are conditionally selected for funding before due diligence begins.
• If NRCan requests additional information during review, the date the information is received becomes the new date of reception of the completed application.
• No funding commitment exists until a written contribution agreement is signed by both parties.

• Updates and notifications on results will be emailed from oerddonotreply-brdenepasrepondre@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca, and applicants should save this address as a trusted sender.
• The Program team will not have meetings or calls with individual applicants during the intake period.
• Generative AI may be used for support purposes only, and applicants remain responsible for ensuring application information is true, accurate, complete, and appropriately cited.
• NRCan reserves the right to alter or cancel the call, funding amounts, deadlines, or application process at its sole discretion.