Funding Snapshot

  • Non-repayable reimbursement
  • Focused on supporting food innovation and research
  • Quarterly intake

Fund Description

Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) funds organizations working towards innovation in the Canadian food industry, specifically in smart product and process development; food ecosystem sustainability; and agile and safe supply chains. The program consists of two streams, both of which are collaborative projects centred around a funding call theme: the Food Innovation Challenge, which funds projects that introduce technologies to improve processing and global competitiveness, and the Innovation Booster, which funds projects related to overcoming challenges with commercializing agri-food technologies.

Funding Details

Recipients of the Innovation Booster can receive up to 50% of total eligible project costs, for projects with expenditures between $20,000-$200,000

The Food Innovation Challenge provides up to 50% of total eligible project costs for projects with expenditures between $1M-$4M.

Eligible Expenditures

Eligible expenditures covered under CFIN’s Innovation Booster include:

  • Direct labour
  • Subcontractors and consultants
  • Direct materials
  • Equipment
  • Other direct costs

Eligible expenditures covered under CFIN’s Food Innovation Challenge include:

  • Costs incurred which are required to carry out eligible project activities/can be attributed to the completion of project activities
  • Costs that are non-recurring and incremental to ordinary business activities

Eligibility Requirements

To qualify for funding from CFIN, projects must:

  • Be led by a business that is incorporated in Canada or a researcher at a Canadian institution
  • Address a specific technical hurdle with well-defined methodology
  • Identify a goal which has a commercial application
  • Be one year or less in length
  • Involve technology which has not been tested in an operational environment/applied in its final form
  • Address the specific funding call

Applicants to the Innovation Booster must have fewer than 500 employees with under $50M in gross revenues.

Projects for the Food Innovation Challenge must be collaborative industry-led initiatives between a minimum of two independent private sector companies, which include at least one small- to medium-sized enterprise partner with fewer than 500 employees.

Program Run

CFIN accepts funding claims on a quarterly basis.