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2023 Innovation Fund competition launched

Projects funded through the Innovation Fund will allow researchers in Canada to generate social, health, environmental and economic benefits, and to make meaningful contributions to addressing global challenges

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Today, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) launched its 2023 Innovation Fund competition. The Innovation Fund is the CFI’s flagship fund. It supports transformative research infrastructure projects at universities, colleges, research institutes and research hospitals across the country.

Through the 2023 competition, the CFI will invest up to $400 million in research infrastructure funding, covering up to 40 percent of a project’s eligible infrastructure costs. We will also provide up to $120 million for associated operating and maintenance costs through our Infrastructure Operating Fund.

Deadline to submit notice of intent

February 23, 2022, is the deadline to submit notices of intent for the 2023 Innovation Fund competition.

Read the 2023 Innovation Fund competition call for proposals

The funding for this competition comes from Budget 2018 where the Government of Canada proposed to establish permanent funding for the CFI. This included an investment of $763 million over five years, beginning in 2018–19, and long-term, stable funding of $462 million per year starting in 2023–24.

This funding allows the CFI to run Innovation Fund competitions at regular intervals of 24 to 30 months, which helps institutions plan strategically, putting forward applications for mature projects while developing promising ones for future competitions.

The objectives of the 2023 Innovation Fund competition are to:

Enable internationally competitive research or technology development through the equitable participation of expert team members
Enhance and optimize the capacity of institutions and research communities to conduct the proposed research or technology development program(s) over the useful life of the infrastructure
Lead to social, health, environmental and/or economic benefits for Canadians.

Register for an information session

We will present the details of the call for proposals for the 2023 competition and provide an opportunity for potential applicants to ask questions at three virtual information sessions.

Recordings will be available on our website for those unable to attend.

Find out more

Find more information on our Innovation Fund pages or contact 2023IF [at] innovation.ca (2023IF[at]innovation[dot]ca) with any questions.