Deadline: 21 July 2017
The Government of Canada is inviting applicants for its “Innovation Superclusters Initiative” in order to strengthen clusters of existing commercial strength, pulling in a range of highly innovative industries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as industry-relevant research talent, to create the conditions required to develop a supercluster that reflects Canadian excellence and world-class leadership.
Investments will accelerate commercialization, strengthen capacity in strategic platform technologies, help tackle challenges of importance to industry and take advantage of new opportunities to boost the productivity and competitiveness of Canada’s sectors of economic strength.
Themes
- Technology leadership: collaborative projects that directly enhance the productivity, performance and competitiveness of member firms.
- Partnerships for scale: activities serving a target group of cluster firms to enable their growth, including by increasing domestic demand for cluster products and services or by facilitating expansion.
- Diverse and skilled talent pools: activities enhancing regional labour force skills and capabilities or initiatives addressing industry needs for talent.
- Access to innovation: investing in and providing access to assets, services or resources that benefit a range of cluster firms over a period of time.
- Global advantage: activities and initiatives that position the cluster and its strengths as world-leading, enable firms to seize market opportunities, and attract international investments and partnerships.
Funding Information
Contributions will normally be between $125–$250 million, for a total of up to $950 million, by March 31, 2022, and will be matched with private sector investment for maximum impact.
Eligibility Criteria
- An eligible Applicant is an industry-led consortium.
- An eligible Recipient of the funds will be a not-for-profit corporation representing the consortium, and referred to as a “Supercluster Entity” or “Entity”.
- To achieve the desired scale of impact, Applicants will be required to:
- pull together a critical mass of large firms, innovative SMEs, industry-relevant academic and research institutions, and other innovation partners eager to work together;
- leverage funding from multiple private sector companies from across highly innovative industries of economic and strategic importance within the cluster; and
- co-invest, dollar for dollar, to match the federal contribution requested and approved under the program.
How to Apply
Applicants must apply online via given website.
Eligible Country: Canada
For more information, please visit Innovation Superclusters Initiative.