Funding

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.