Food Innovation Challenge
The Food Innovation Challenge is a unique funding opportunity for Canadian food industry collaborators who want to spearhead transformative improvements that will propel the food sector forward and generate significant economic impact.
Upcoming Calls for 2023-2024
Food Innovation Challenge #4
Cultivating a resilient food future: Developing the end-to-end Cellular Food capacity for Canadian global leadership.
Expression of Interest Open Date: February 13th, 2023
Expression of Interest Close: March 27th, 2023
Full Application Invites: April 26th, 2023
Full Application Deadline: May 24th, 2023
Notification of Award: July 24th, 2023
Food Innovation Challenge #5
For it’s 5th Challenge, CFIN is seeking disruptive solutions that assist food processors and distributors address:
- Labour constraints
- Shelf-life extensions
- Side stream valorization
- Energy input reduction or reuse
- Input utilization and cost-efficiencies
- New technologies for transforming food
Details for this call will be released in early April 2023.
Expression of Interest Open Date: April 3rd, 2023
Expression of Interest Close: May 10th, 2023
Full Application Invites: June 12th, 2023
Full Application Deadline: July 26th, 2023
Notification of Award: October 10th, 2023
The Call Guide for the 5th Food Innovation Challenge will be released mid-March.
CFIN reserves the right to modify dates and themes as required.
Who can participate?
To qualify for funding, all project proposals for any call must be collaborative industry-led initiatives composed of:
- A lead applicant and multiple partners, with a minimum of two private sector enterprises;
- Active CFIN members;
- At least one collaborator must be a small to medium sized enterprise partner; and,
- All project partners must be incorporated in Canada.
Project size
The total eligible project costs should be between $1 million and $4 million, and the funding from CFIN will be up to 50% of total eligible project costs.
Funding will be provided on a reimbursement basis and CFIN will require a non-refundable project management fee of 5% of total project costs eligible for CFIN funding.