Funding, News and Announcements

The Innovative Solutions Canada program aims to support innovation and growth of Canadian small businesses by providing funding to develop novel solutions to challenges proposed by federal departments. Universities can receive funding for these R&D challenges as a partner with business applicants or by applying through their own spinoff companies.

The nine new competitions are as follows:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is challenging small businesses to:
  • 1. Improve soil sample collection to make it easier, and make testing more accurate.
  • 2. Make “smart farming” technology cheaper so that smaller farms can use it.
• Canadian Coast Guard is challenging small businesses to:
  • 3. Harness the movement of ships in ocean waves to reduce fuel consumption and the need for external power sources.
• Correctional Service Canada is challenging small businesses to:
  • 4. Find new technology to stop inmates from performing illegal activities using wireless devices.
  • 5. Monitor the life signs of inmates and identify critical conditions so that staff can respond more quickly in emergencies.
  • 6. Create an innovative and cost-effective way to stop contraband items from getting into prisons via drone or being thrown over the fence.
• Public Services and Procurement Canada is challenging small businesses to:
  • 7. Improve the sound quality for remote interpretation services so that service isn’t interrupted because the interpreters can’t hear.
• Shared Services Canada is challenging small businesses to:
  •  8. Deliver high-speed broadband Internet access to citizens and Government of Canada employees who work or live in remote areas of the country.
• Transport Canada is challenging small businesses to:
  •  9. Accelerate the adoption of low-cost yet effective technologies that improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety around commercial vehicles, preventing injuries and saving lives.

Further details on the program can be found on the Government of Canada’s website.