Call for Nominations: Canada-Italy Innovation Award

This Award provides funding to members of the Italian innovation ecosystem including start-ups, innovation experts, researchers, scientists, or creative industry professionals to develop collaborative projects with Canadian partners in areas that will drive innovative, inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development.

The Canada-Italy Innovation Award aims to enable new partnerships between Canadian and Italian experts and deepen existing collaborations to deliver innovations that have impact.

Priority Areas

• Energy security
  • Social responsibility
  • Hydrogen as a complement to renewable power
  • Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)
  • Enhancing extraction and recovery techniques of critical raw materials
  • Improving energy efficiency in manufacturing
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and sport
  • Data-driven decision making for early risk detection
  • Health monitoring and lifestyle optimization
  • AI innovations in sports medicine
• Space technology
  • Enhancing cooperation between Canada and Italy’s space ecosystems
  • Addressing global sustainability and resilience challenges
  • Innovation in the Space sector
• Migration management
  • Facilitating pathways for regular migration
  • Harnessing AI and data insights
  • Enhancing resilience

Funding Information

• The value of an Award will be up to a maximum of €4,000 (EUR).

Costs Covered

• Travel expenses that are eligible for reimbursement include:
  • Economy class airfare (not premium economy)
  • Accommodation
  • Local transportation
  • €75 (EUR) per diem (per day of travel)

Expected Outcomes

• Joint publications and projects
• Student/researcher exchange programs
• Institutional linkages
• Sharing of equipment, materials and facilities
• Exchange of skills and techniques
• Applied technology development
• Creative products and applications
• Technology transfer

Eligibility Criteria

• The Canada-Italy Innovation Award is available to start-ups, innovation experts, researchers, scientists, and creative industries professionals, collaborating with Canadian partners. Private/public partnerships are encouraged.
• Funding through the Canada-Italy Innovation Award is to support expenses incurred by the Italian awardee only for travel to Canada.
• Successful applicants will be required to complete a report immediately following the completion of the travel and must commit to providing brief updates on follow-up activities and outcomes 6 and 12 months after the completion of the project.

Evaluation Criteria

• Research excellence: Quality, originality, and potential impact of the proposed research project.
• Relevance to innovation goals: Alignment of the research project with the program’s objectives of fostering innovation and knowledge transfer.
• Collaborative and long-term impact: Strength of collaboration with the Canadian partner, including mutual, societal, or economic benefits and knowledge exchange leading to sustainable partnerships.
• Feasibility: Practicality and achievability of the research plan, including timeline, methodology, resources, and outcome.
• Track record of applicant: Applicant’s prior research achievements, publications, and experience relevant to the proposed project.
• Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+): Alignment of the project with the GBA+, the process for understanding who is impacted by issues or opportunities addressed by the initiative.

For more information, visit Government of Canada.