This call for proposals is open to individuals, academia, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and provincial/territorial/municipal governments.
An initial allocation of $15 million is available to this set of COVID-19 related challenges.
Successful applicants to Phase 1 will receive up to $200,000 for a period of 6 months, and Phase 2 recipients will receive up to $1,000,000 for a period of 1 year.
This funding is a non-repayable contribution. The money does not need to be repaid to Canada. A non-repayable contribution is a monetary payment that does not result in the acquisition by the Government of Canada of any goods, services or assets. This is different than previous calls for proposals under Competitive Projects, where the Department had used a procurement contract. As a result, some of the requirements set out in the IDEaS Program Applicant’s Guide may be different from those you may have seen in the past.
Although projects from this CFP will be funded using non-repayable contributions, DND/CAF may acquire S&T solutions developed from this call through a separate procurement process in the future.
Successful applicants will be asked to complete a Direct Deposit form.
Once the contribution agreement has been signed by the applicant and DND, payments will be made based on measurable, pre-defined project milestones, as well as upon receipt of the documentation as defined in the contribution agreements.
No. This is a non-repayable contribution so no repayment is expected, even if you only receive funding from phase 1.
This Call for Proposals is open to eligible recipients outlined in the Applicant Guide, Section 1.6 Eligible Recipients: individuals, academia, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and provincial/territorial/municipal governments that can be located outside of Canada. However, please also refer to Section 1.12 Canadian Content that generally, eligible costs are to be incurred in Canada. The IDEaS Program may support eligible activities and associated costs incurred outside of Canada when necessary to ensure project success. In no case can more than 50% of eligible costs be incurred outside of Canada.
Yes. Applicants may submit more than one proposal per Challenge, however the proposals must have no dependencies on other proposals. Each proposal will be evaluated separately on its own merit.
No. Unsolicited proposals will not be accepted. You may want to consult other programs such as Innovation Canada or NRC COVID-19 community support platforms for other opportunities to provide your solution.
For this Call for Proposals, we are looking for innovations that meets one or more of the following criteria:
-An invention*, new technology or new process that is not currently available in the marketplace.
-Significant modifications to the application of existing technologies/components/processes that are applied in a setting or condition for which current applications are not possible or feasible.
-An improvement in functionality, cost or performance over an existing technology/process that is considered state-of-the-art or the current industry best practice.
* An “invention” is defined for the purposes of this proposal as: “A manufacturing design or any other new and useful improvement that is new or novel, that is, not commonly known or not an obvious derivative of an existing way of doing things.”
All proposals need to be submitted via Canada Post’s epost Connect account. Instructions on how to submit your application can be found in the IDEaS Program Applicant’s Guide.
Yes. You can edit your proposal up until the deadline date for the Challenge via your epost Connect account.
Character limits include spaces, punctuation, letters, numbers or symbossl; additionally, blank line spaces between paragraphs count toward character count and should not be used. The allocated space is sufficient for applicants to provide a relevant and high level description.
It is not necessary to provide a CV with the proposal submission. If you would like to provide a CV you may do so by attaching it with the proposal in the epost Connect conversation. Applicants of selected proposals may be requested to provide additional information to support the final funding selection decisions. Additional project analysis may be required, including Financial Risk and Technical Assessments.
Please try the steps below:
1. Access the IDEaS website, Proposal Form https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/dnd-mdn/documents/ideas/covid-19/cfp_en.pdf
2. Prior to entering information, do a file save as and save the blank proposal form on your computer.
3. Enter the information into the form. (You can test by entering a few data fields).
4. Save the form again using an appropriate file name.
Requests for epost Connect will be processed in the order they are received. As outlined in the Applicant Guide, Section 2 Submission Process, proposals must be submitted by using the epost Connect service provided by Canada Post Corporation (CPC). The applicant must send as early as possible, and in any case, at least five business days prior to the Call For Proposals closing date and time, an email requesting to open an epost Connect conversation. Requests to open an epost Connect conversation received after that time may not be answered or may result in the late submission of the proposal.
Applicants are solely responsible for ensuring their proposal is submitted properly in its entirety by the application deadline.
Applicants may leverage funding from other sources and are required to include this information within Table 1 - Project Activities & Budget (maximum of 5 activities) of the proposal form. Applicants must identify all sources of funding in their proposals and confirm this information in a Contribution Agreement if the proposal is selected for funding. The differences between the projects must be clearly identified within the proposal form as federal government funding cannot be provided for the same project. For additional information, please refer to the Applicant Guide, 1.8 Stacking Provisions and Other Government Assistance.
A federal employee is not an eligible recipient through the IDEaS Program. The intent of this process is to fund innovators external to the federal government. As a result, a DND employee would not be eligible.
There is no limitation on the number of IDEaS projects with a specific recipient. Applicants may submit more than one proposal per Challenge, but one proposal can only address one Challenge. Proposals should be standalone and have no interdependencies. If proposals are identified as dependent, they will be declared as inadmissible and not be considered further. Each proposal will be evaluated separately on its own merit.
The differences between your projects must be clearly identified within the proposal form as federal government funding cannot be provided for the same project. For additional information, please refer to the Applicant Guide, 1.8 Stacking Provisions and Other Government Assistance.
Thank you for your interest in the IDEeS programme. This call for proposals is open to individuals, academics, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations and provincial/territorial/municipal governments. For more information on joint ventures, please refer to the Applicant's Guide, section 1.6 Recipients.
It is difficult to provide an example of a specific situation; however, if the IP is of interest to the Crown, it may ask for a licence. The licence will allow Canada to do anything that it would be able to do if it were the owner of the Foreground Information, other than exploit it commercially and transfer or assign ownership of it.
Unsolicited proposals will not be accepted. You may want to consult other programs such as Innovation Canada (https://innovation.ised-isde.canada.ca/s/?language=en&lang=eng) or NRC COVID-19 community support (https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/nrc-covid-19-community-support) platforms for other opportunities to provide your solution.
Representatives of Canada will evaluate the proposals.
Yes, all applicants will receive their feedback via email.
This is dependent on a number of factors including complexity of the Challenge and number of submissions received, but typically you should receive a response within two months of the Call for Proposals closing date.
You will be notified via email.
The IDEaS Challenge Statements define each Challenge and provide essential and desired outcomes to allow applicants to outline and submit proposed solutions. These provide applicants with the required details in order to determine if their proposed work falls within the Challenge requirement.
As outlined in the Applicant Guide, IDEaS aims to encourage and progress innovative solutions along the Solution Readiness Level (SRL) maturity scale, as described on the IDEaS website (https://canada-preview.adobecqms.net/en/department-national-defence/programs/defence-ideas/solution-readiness-level.html). The current SRL of the proposed solution must be within 1 and 6 (inclusive).
Applicants may also wish to consult other programs such as Innovation Canada (https://innovation.ised-isde.canada.ca/s/?language=en&lang=eng) or NRC COVID-19 community support (https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/nrc-covid-19-community-support) platforms for other opportunities to provide your solution. Applicants with fully available solutions are also encouraged to monitor current opportunities for tenders on Buy and Sell https://buyandsell.gc.ca/.
Innovators will need to obtain and make use of their own data sets or submit proposals that support data gathering activities. Government furnished property (GFP) will not be provided by the Department during the 1st phase of work. Innovators are encouraged to plan fo the use of available resources, data sets, and personnel within their proposals.
In order to start work, a contribution agreement needs to be signed between you and Canada.
You do. Recipients retain the IP rights with a licence granted to Canada for IP rights, which would include the right to use and have used the IP for Canada’s activities.
All intellectual property (IP) rights that arise as a result of this Program shall vest in the Recipient. The Crown may, at its sole discretion, include a provision in the Contribution Agreement requiring that the Recipient grant the Crown, in perpetuity, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free and world-wide licence, to use or have used, the intellectual property for government purposes. This licence allows the Crown to do anything that it would be able to do if it were the owner of the IP, other than exploit it commercially, or transfer or assign ownership of it.
Successful Phase 1 recipients will be contacted by IDEaS to submit another proposal form for Phase 2 if their solution shows promise. It is solely at the discretion of Canada whether applicants move on to phase 2.
Send any questions to the IDEaS Program mailbox (question@IDEaSreg.com). We try to turn around any responses within 48 hours. Please note that questions received less than five (5) calendar days before the application deadline may not be answered.
