The Indigenous Innovation Initiative was started to address health, social, and economic challenges and spark community-led Indigenous innovation. Our vision is to improve all life through Indigenous innovation. The core principles of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative are to:
- Honour Indigenous ways of knowing and being;
- Honour Indigenous laws and rights; and
- Honour the Land and Water.
We are pleased to launch the next phase of its program: Advancing Indigenous Gender Equality through Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.
We are seeking bold and transformative projects that are led by First Nations, Métis, or Inuit female, Two Spirit, queer, trans, non-binary, or gender-diverse persons in Canada that align with one (1) of our four (4) investment priority areas:
- Land story (environmental sustainability) – solutions that directly address or mitigate climate change
- Food sovereignty (agriculture) – solutions that help address food security, including supply chains, food production and food access
- Tech (digital access and data sovereignty) – tech innovations that increase digital access or data sovereignty for Indigenous communities
- Wellness – solutions that address the mental health and well-being of people using an Indigenous approach. We are particularly inviting projects that focus on youth mental health.
All projects should speak to how their project will directly and/or indirectly honour the Lands, Waters, and Skies (environmental sustainability practices) and how they are grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Applicants will be able to self-select requests for innovation funding for projects at either the proof of concept (Seed) or transition to scale (TTS) stage.
In this Request for Proposals (RFP) you will find background information, funding overview, program scope and eligibility, the application process, the review process, the evaluation criteria, and instructions for applying. This information will help you submit a proposal for funding from the Indigenous Innovation Initiative. You can submit your application anytime. Application reviews will be ongoing, beginning in the Spring of 2023 and until the RFP is withdrawn by the Indigenous Innovation Initiative. Projects will be selected for support on an ongoing basis, pending the availability of funding.
This application cycle has now closed.
For any support or questions, please e-mail: info@indigenousinnovate.org.
Please click on each image to obtain JPEG versions of the social media content.
Below are links to the posts for the four different investment priority areas:
Social Media Handles:
FB: @Indiginnovate
IG: @indiginnovate
Linkedln: @Indigenousinnovate
Twitter: @Indiginnovate
Important Dates:
Please note that this application cycle has now closed. Stay tuned for upcoming dates on future cycles. Please e-mail info@indigenousinnovate.org if you have any questions or concerns.
Application Form:
If you would like to preview the application form, please use the links below.
Webinars:
Please note that this application cycle has now closed.
Past Webinar Recordings:
Webinar Recording:
In this webinar, you will get an overview of the request for proposal, eligibility and how to use the Fluxx portal, the online application system Grand Challenges Canada uses for all its Requests For Proposals.
Webinar Recording:
In this webinar, you will get an overview of the request for proposal, eligibility, the application process and FAQs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
The FAQs document may help answer questions you may have about this Request for Proposals. These questions are grouped by topic; you can click on a question in the list to jump to the answer.
If you need more information or do not see your question, please email info@indigenousinnovate.org.
The Scoring Matrix:
Full applications will be scored internally by members of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative. The full scoring will evaluate the proposed idea, its potential for impact and scale, and its alignment with Indigenous Innovation Initiative principles and priorities.
The Indigenous Innovation Initiative team will use the Seed Project Scoring Matrix for this step. Applications must achieve a minimum threshold score and be ranked amongst the highest-scoring projects to move to step 4.4. Applications scoring less than the threshold score and/or not selected to move to the next stage will be returned with feedback for applicants to refine and re-apply if desired. Downloading the files below might require using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Seed Project Scoring Matrix (English)
Seed Project Scoring Matrix (French)