The Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund supports the development of innovative infrastructure technologies and solutions that result in economically sustainable, longer-lasting and environmentally-friendly products and services. The goal of the fund is to move promising technologies and ideas to a market ready product or applied municipal solution. The fund supports innovations that solve real world problems that municipalities have identified as being of high importance and that are expected to create significant returns in terms of reducing costs for municipalities and having a positive economic impact.

The Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund is available for industry and other stakeholders. Primary activities targeted for support include roads and transportation, water and wastewater, and soil remediation. However, innovations in other municipal infrastructure sectors are also considered.

The industry focused Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund supports two major streams:

1. Acceleration Funds – This funding is directed towards accelerating high potential innovations that are in the later stages of development to being market ready products or services.
2. Exploration Funds – This funding is directed towards early stage innovations needing further exploration in concept development, design prototyping, market validation and bench-scale testing.

To date, the Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund has been extremely successful. For every $1 invested by the Government into CT, CT contributes a minimum of $1.45 back to Saskatchewan’s growing economy. Based on a sample size of 10 clients that received just over $2 million in funding from CT to assist with advancing their products and technologies, 2010/11 revenues were over $14 million (resulting specifically from the technologies that CT was directly involved in) and 45 full-time equivalent jobs were created, representing wages of nearly $2 million annually. Based on client projections, anticipated revenues for the same 10 clients over the next three years are conservatively estimated at $75 million.

Criteria

The fund supports innovations that solve real world problems that municipalities have identified as being of high importance and that are expected to create significant returns in terms of reducing costs for municipalities and having a positive economic impact.

Funding is generally provided in the range of $5,000 - $40,000; however requests above this range will be considered for high value showcase projects.

The MIIF is available for companies, researchers and municipalities. Primary activities targeted for support are roads and transportation, water and waste water, and soil remediation; however, innovations in other municipal infrastructure sectors are encouraged and will be considered.

Applications to the MIIF will be evaluated on criteria which include:

• Whether or not there is a compelling market need for the innovation
• How likely it is that the innovation can be successfully commercialized or applied to create
• A municipal solution Whether or not a municipality has a willingness to invest resources in attaining a solution
• Whether the investigator or a strategic partner(s) is capable of developing the technology

To examine the fund criteria click here.

To complete a pre-qualification form, click here.

To see the complete project application form, click here.