Innovation Programmes
Canada and Chile call for R&D projects
The national funding bodies from Canada and Chile have allocated funding for sustainable mining, energy and sustainable construction R&D projects.
You can submit your R&D project application for this call for projects between 9 July 2025 and 21 November 2025. Your project consortium must include at least:
- One eligible Canadian small or medium-sized enterprise (SME),
- One eligible Chilean company
The parties listed above must be unrelated parties (i.e. no direct, indirect, beneficial or constructive ownership interest between these parties.) and ensure no conflicting interests are present. The team should be led by a company (main applicant) in the respective countries and may include other parties such as research institutes or universities.
Countries
About this call
Timeline
- Announcement of the Call: Early July 2025
- Opening of the Call: 9 July 2025
- Deadline for Eureka application (Smartsimple): 21 November 2025, 23:59 GMT-4
- National evaluation: From December 2025
- Consensus Meeting of funding agencies: February 2026
- Eureka label and funding decision: From consensus meeting onwards
- Project starts: From April 2026 onwards
Funding information
This project call supports the development of new or improved products (goods or services) and/or processes that require R&D, from the prototype phase to the technical validation phase at a production scale and/or commercial validation, strengthening the company’s innovation capabilities on Sustainable Mining, Clean Energy and Sustainable Construction R&D projects.
R&D projects should target the following fields:
- Sustainable mining
- Clean Energy
- Sustainable construction
Examples of projects within the scope of this call include:
- Sustainable mining: resilient supply chain of critical minerals, sustainable development of minerals and metals, lithium, green mining, digitalization, artificial intelligence, drilling, low-profile loading equipment, Off-the-Road (OTR) tyres, energy efficiency, automation.
- Clean Energy: technologies, new or improved photovoltaic panel materials, electrochemical energy storage, such as lithium batteries, sustainable fuels, geothermal and ocean energy.
- Sustainable Construction: building information modelling methodology; seismic isolation/damper technologies; resilient architectural designs; advanced building materials and technologies (e.g., fire resistance, water resistance, shock resistance, non-toxic); durability-increasing adaptations e.g., for buildings on weak soils or floodplains, prevention of wildfires, enhancement of construction materials, wood advanced manufacture. Projects on this field must be within a sustainable framework.
Projects must target at least one industry described above and have at least one clear and specific project application.
Projects should aim to develop a product, process or service for commercialisation and the implementation of project results (such as market launch) should aim to occur no later than 24 months after project completion.
Projects may develop fundamentally new innovations, or adapt, re-engineer and re-purpose existing innovations currently used or envisaged for different application areas. From a technology readiness starting point, it is expected that projects will start no lower than a finalized TRL 3 or on the very early stages of TRL level 4 at least.
For further requirements, please check section “Eligibility”.
Country information
Canada 🇨🇦
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The funding for this call for proposals is offered by the National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). NRC IRAP is responsible for delivering this call for proposals and for managing any resulting funding agreements.
Eligible Canadian SMEs may receive up to 50% reimbursement of total project costs up to a maximum total funding amount of 500,000 Canadian dollars over 12 to 36 months.
Note: Canadian SME applicants may apply to more than one NRC IRAP call for proposals simultaneously. However, NR IRAP may limit the number of funded projects and/or the total amount of funding per applicant. Canadian SME applicants who are applying to more than one opportunity or who have ongoing NRC IRAP projects should speak to their NRC IRAP representative for more information.
Note: Canadian SME applicants must be eligible for funding as NRC IRAP clients before they can be considered for funding through this call for proposals. For more information on NRC IRAP eligibility and becoming an NRC IRAP client, please contact NRC IRAP at 1-877-994-4727.
In addition to the Canadian SME, other Canadian organisations (research institutes, universities, research and technology organisations, large enterprises and other companies) may participate on a self-funded basis or as subcontractors.
Additional eligibility requirements for applications from Canada
To be eligible for funding from NRC IRAP, Canadian companies must meet the following criteria:
- be an incorporated, profit-oriented small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Canada (defined as having 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees)
- have been in operation for a minimum of 12 months prior to the project proposal deadline specified above
- have a minimum of 5 full-time equivalent employees located in Canada (on your company payroll and issued a T4), excluding contract employees
- pursue growth and profit by developing and commercializing innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services or processes in Canada
- have a differentiated and protectable technology with commercial potential in global markets
- have the financial capacity (working capital, sales revenue, investment, etc.) and the operational capacity (personnel, expertise, resources, etc.) to undertake an international multi-year R&D collaboration while maintaining regular operations, and to subsequently commercialize the results
- be committed to significant growth through international market expansion
Preference may be given to SME applicants who:
- have a minimum of 15 full‑time equivalent employees located in Canada (on your company payroll and issued a T4), excluding contract employees
- have commercialized one or more products internationally
- have more than $500,000 CAD in annual sales revenue.
Canadian applicants must complete the following two steps to submit an application:
- Canadian applicant must register by 5 September 2025 on the to request an Expression of Interest (EOI) form.
- Complete and submit the EOI form to NRC IRAP by 19 September 2025. We strongly recommend Canadian applicants complete the EOI phase as early as possible, in order for NRC IRAP to confirm the firm’s potential eligibility for funding before assembling and submitting a proposal. Only qualified applicants will be invited to submit the more detailed Eureka Network projects proposal and draft consortium agreement in collaboration with their project partner(s). Qualified Canadian applicants will be provided an NRC IRAP Canadian Annex form that will need to be completed along with the Eureka Network projects proposal.
For information related to application steps, requirements, instructions, Eureka online project application, and the national funding body proposal and funding agreement, please consult the NRC IRAP call for proposals announcement.
Chile 🇨🇱
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Funding available for Chilean companies on an open budget basis through a matching grant of maximum €220.000 approx. (CLP$220 million or 322,000 CAD) per project, which varies according to firm size:
- 40% Large size companies
- 60% Medium size companies
- 80% Small size companies
Extra 10% funding for female-led companies.
Firms must be at least 24 months old by the time the national funding application is submitted and must show proof of sales. Universities and research centres are not eligible to receive funding directly from Corfo, but they can participate as project collaborators.
Additional eligibility requirements for applications from Chile
All Chilean interested companies in participating from this call must contact Corfo before applying to receive guidance from Corfo’s technical team.
The application process for this call for proposals has two phases:
- Phase 1: International, where projects applications are submitted through the Eureka System (Smartsimple platform), and Chilean applicants submit the R&D activities (work plan) and budget through Corfo’s website;
- Phase 2: National funding, where Chilean companies with projects regarded as “eligible” in Phase 1 apply for funding to Corfo through Corfo’s website.
Eligibility in Phase 1 will be granted by Corfo according to the following procedures:
- Corfo will review the project applications submitted through the Eureka system, and the R&D activities (work plan) and budget submitted through Corfo’s website.
- If both applications meet Corfo’s eligibility criteria, the company will be invited to prepare a draft application to national funding through the “Crea y Valida – Eureka” programme.
- Prior to the final project submission, all invited companies will be asked to present the proposed R&D project to Corfo’s technical team with the aim of receiving feedback from them. This presentation is mandatory and will grant the status of “eligible” in Phase 1.
- Only companies that have been granted the “eligible” status will be allowed to move to Phase 2 to apply to national funding from Corfo.
How to apply
Who can apply
Eureka has limited eligibility criteria for organisations participating in a Network Projects consortium:
- Your project idea must represent international cooperation in the form of a specific project.
- The project must be directed at researching or developing an innovative product, process or service with the goal of commercialisation.
- The project must have a civilian purpose.
- Your consortium must include at least two independent legal entities from each country involved in this call.
- No single organisation or country can be responsible for more than 70% of the project budget.
- The duration of your project may not exceed 36 months.
- Your project must benefit all partners and all partners must participate.
- The project should have an obvious benefit and added value resulting from the technological cooperation between the participants from the different countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure etc.).
- The product or process must be innovative and with the potential to create impact.
- A signed consortium agreement is required upon approval of the consortium by both public authorities, before the actual start of the project. It ought to include, amongst others, the ownership and use of know-how and IPR settlements
How applications are evaluated
Your project application will be reviewed according to our Network projects evaluation methodology.
1. Impact
- Is the market properly addressed (i.e. size, access and risks)?
- Is the value creation properly addressed (i.e. employment opportunities and environmental and societal benefits)?
- What are the competitive advantages of your project (i.e. strategic importance, enhanced capabilities and visibility)?
- Are your commercialisation plans clear and realistic (i.e. return on investment, geographical and sectoral impact)?
2. Excellence
- What is the degree of innovation? (i.e. is the proposed product, process or service state-of-the-art? Is there sufficient technological maturity and risk)?
- How is the new knowledge going to be used?
- Is your project scientifically and technically challenging for consortium partners?
- Is the technical achievability and risk properly addressed?
3. Quality and efficiency of implementation
- What is the quality of your consortium (i.e. balance of the partnership and technological, managerial and financial capabilities of each partner)?
- Is there added value through international cooperation?
- Is your project management and planning realistic and clearly defined (i.e. methodology, planning approach, milestones and deliverables)?
- Is your cost structure reasonable (i.e. costs and financial commitment for each consortium partner)?
4. Overall perception
Experts will list three positive and negative points to your application and finally state whether they recommend your project for public investment.
Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the national project coordinator and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
Application process
- Contact your national funding body using the contact form on Eureka’s website to discuss your project idea, financial viability, eligibility and national procedures.
- Create an account on our application portal (one per consortium) and select the funding opportunity you want to apply to.
- Using the portal, complete one application form per consortium (in English) and invite other consortium partners to fill in a partner form.
- Upload a GANTT chart (one per consortium), a signed and completed co-signature form (which you can download from the platform) and any additional required annexes.
- Your application will be checked for completeness and eligibility before being reviewed using a standard evaluation procedure. If successful, your project will receive a Eureka label.
- Your national funding body may carry out a further evaluation (performed by the NPC and technical experts) according to national rules before allocating funds to successful applicants.
- The final step is to complete and sign a consortium agreement. We recommend that you seek legal advice when drafting your consortium agreement.
Additionally, each applicant must submit all required documents to their respective national funding authority and meet its due diligence process requirements.
