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Two colorful geometric logos for Innovation Booster and People Skill Spectrum.

Innovation Booster

Program Information

The Innovation Booster is designed to provide flexible and rapid support to Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs - a business with 499 or fewer employees and less than $50 million in gross revenues) as they address food innovation challenges or technical hurdles that have created a barrier for achieving their commercialization goals.

Who Can Participate

To qualify for funding, all project proposals for any call must be:

  • Submitted by Canadian incorporated businesses with less than $50M in annual sales in their most recently completed fiscal year.
  • Seeking to demonstrate innovations between a Technology Readiness Level of 1 to 7. Projects including TRL 8 and 9 components will only be considered if they are part of a project that also includes TRL 1 to 7.
  • Projects should be no more than one year (12 months) in length.

CFIN supports industrial research and demonstration activities, focused on the food sector from farm-gate to consumer’s plate. Agriculture or primary production focused projects are not eligible for our funding.

All applicants must register for a free CFIN membership through www.cfin-rcia.ca.

Project Size

The total eligible project costs must be between $20,000 and $200,000, and the maximum level of matching funding from CFIN will be 50% of total eligible project costs, or $100,000.

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.

Timeline - Round 1 (CLOSED)

Intake OpensFebruary 24, 2025
Application DeadlineMarch 25, 2025

Timeline - Round 2 (CLOSED)

Intake OpensJuly 7, 2025
Application DeadlineAugust 12, 2025

Other Important Information

Applications must be submitted by 11:59pm local time on the deadline date.

Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.cfin-rcia.ca/programs/program-faqs

A slide showing numerous company logos under the title 'Funded Projects: Innovation Booster'.