College-Industry Innovation grant

Overview

The College-Industry Innovation (CII) streams support significant research infrastructure that will add to the existing applied research and technology development capacity of a college or technical institute.

The CII streams will enhance the capacity of colleges/technical institutes to support business innovation in Alberta by providing state-of-the-art, industry-relevant research infrastructure to foster partnerships with the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.

Proposals are encouraged to align with areas of strategic priority to the institution and the province's priorities in context of the ARIF.

Institutions must demonstrate how the research will contribute to program delivery and student engagement.

Grant streams

There are two streams under the CII:

• Stream 1: Infrastructure requests to enhance existing applied research and technology development capacity in colleges. Colleges/technical institutes with an established capacity are encouraged to apply to this stream. In particular, those who have received a Five-Year College and Community Innovation Program (CCI) – Innovation Enhancement (IE) grant or research and development funding from provincial, industrial, or other sources, are encouraged to apply to this stream.
• Stream 2: Joint initiative for applications requesting research infrastructure to support an application to the Five-Year College and Community Innovation Program Innovation Enhancement grant. These are joint applications to the CFI/NSERC.

Funding

RCP will fund up to 40% of the total eligible project costs for successful proposals.

Eligible applicants

Applicants eligible for the CFI are eligible for the CII grant.

Applications must follow CFI guidelines on eligibility, in-kind contributions, eligible expenditures, and funding partners.

See the CFI’s Policy and Program guide for more details.

How to apply

Follow these steps to apply for the program. Do not include scanned copies of documents, other than signature pages.

Step 1. Submit a proposal to CFI

Applicants must submit a proposal of their project to the CFI-CII Fund.

Step 2. Submit the Notice of Intent

You will need to submit the Notice of Intent you wrote for the CFI program, if applicable, either by mail, in-person or e-mail, before the Notice of Intent deadline.

See below for contact information.

Step 3. Fill out an application

An application consists of these 3 elements in the following order:

1. Alberta Alignment Module (PDF, 69 KB)
2. CFI Application
3. Curriculum Vitae (where required by the CFI)

Step 4. Gather your supporting documents

In addition to the above, you will need to include the following documents:

• a cover letter, authorized by a designated institutional representative
• an Excel attachment listing the individual Notice of Intent and/or application submissions, indicating the provincial request for each project
• a copy of the NSERC Five-Year Community College Innovation (CCI) Program-Innovation Enhancement grant application sent to NSERC, if applicable

Step 5. Submit the application and supporting documents

Submit your application and supporting documents either by mail, in-person or e-mail, before the application deadline. See below for contact information.

After you apply

Your application will be reviewed by RCP’s Multidisciplinary Review Panel. The review process occurs in 3 stages:

1. Expert review (where applicable, RCP and grant-specific partnership agency expert reviews are used)
2. Independent review by the Multidisciplinary Review Panel
3. Decisions by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade

Reporting requirements

A contractual grant agreement will be developed for awarded projects. This agreement will outline the terms and conditions of support and must be signed by both parties (institutional representative and Economic Development and Trade representative) prior to the release of payment.

As a part of this agreement, institutions will be required to regularly report on the financial status of projects and on the outcomes achieved. The schedule and reporting requirements will be outlined in the agreement. Any significant variations in project scope or other requirements of the contract must be agreed to by both parties.

Reporting requirements for awarded projects consists of two components:

1. RCP Financial Accountability Report Template (XLS, 37 KB)
2. RCP Outcomes Report Template (94 KB)

Contact

If you have questions about the application submission process, or to submit application documents, please contact Neil Sulakhe:

neil.sulakhe@gov.ab.ca
780-427-6022

Mailing address:

Research Capacity Program
c/o Research Capacity Planning
Economic Development and Trade
4th Floor, Phipps-McKinnon Building
10020 101A Avenue
Edmonton, AB  T5J 3G2