Circular Demonstration Challenge 

Climate-Smart Circular Collaborations to Drive Regional Priorities

The circular economy has been identified as a primary strategy in Canada’s climate action plan, which aims to reduce emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 and achieve Net-Zero Emissions by 2050. To create a sustainable, resilient future requires the adoption of clean technologies and resource efficient approaches that underpin a circular economy.

COIL is launching the Circular Demonstration Challenge as a public call-out for bold, novel, climate-smart solutions that inspire circular transitions at an industry-wide scale. This is a team-based application with between $50,000-$100,000 available in funding, depending on the scope of the proposed solution.

The Circular Demonstration Challenge is now closed.

Circular Demonstration Project Categories

The Circular Demonstration Challenge is open to teams of companies/organizations (minimum of three per team) across the food, environment and construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) sectors. Challenges and opportunities could include, but are not limited to: 

  • Reverse logistics 
  • Product as a Service (PaaS) transitions
  • Secondary market development
  • Systems/behavioural change
  • Waste to value and value-added upcycling
  • Solutions for hard-to-recycle materials (e.g. agricultural plastics)

Application Criteria 

  • Team applications of three or more enterprises 
  • Climate-smart solution (i.e. projects resulting in emissions reductions, waste reduction/diversion)
  • Potential to scale for industry-wide impact 
  • Implementation-ready
  • Significant matched funding (equivalent of $50-$80K across team members preferred, including capital, in-kind, commitment to knowledge transfer, etc.)
  • Letter of support from regional Economic Development function (e.g. municipal economic development department – see application for template) 
  • Projects, team members and prototype impacts must be based in southern Ontario

Demonstration Timeline 

Application Deadline                 January 20, 2023 | 5pm ET 

Demonstration Orientation     February 6, 2023 | 11:30am ET 

Demonstration Pilot                  February – November 2023 

Reporting & Evaluation             December 2023 

Funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario - Government of Canada

Any Questions?

Want to learn more about this program and if it could be a fit for your enterprise? Send us a question and we’ll get back to you shortly.

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