Agricultural Clean Technology Program Research and Innovation Stream – Accelerator: Step 2. Eligibility

Step 2. Eligibility

Check if you meet the criteria to apply.

Eligibility checklist

You must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible as an Initial Recipient.

1. You're a not-for-profit organization, which may include:
   • Business accelerators, incubators, and networks that support early-stage or developing companies through funding, mentorship, access to investors, building relevant connections, business training, and other support that help them become self-sufficient, established businesses
2. You're a legal entity capable of entering into legal binding agreements

Eligible activities

All project activities must be carried out in Canada only.

You must demonstrate your ability to collaborate with other organizations and industry stakeholders to increase project capacity, knowledge transfer, and technology adoption.

Your activities may include:

• further distribution of funds
• support services
• knowledge and technology transfer (KTT)

Further distribution of funds

Develop, design, and implement a process to further distribute funds to Ultimate Recipients in a manner consistent with the program objectives.

Support services

Support services involve activities such as:

• developing and implementing an application process
• promoting the project
• coordinating Ultimate Recipients’ activities and aligning them with the project
• providing mentorship
• reviewing results

Where you conduct project management or administration duties and support services, your time must be split between administrative and support services time. No additional administrative time and costs (such as those listed under administrative cost items, including project management or preparing performance reports) would be eligible under support services.

Knowledge and technology transfer

Ensure that knowledge and technology from innovation investment results reach the end user and are readily available. Proposals that involve aspects of late-stage demonstration and knowledge and technology transfer will be considered favourably during evaluation.

Examples of eligible KTT activities include:

• dissemination of results to producers, processors and communities (such as case studies, videos and other formats) to help the sector leverage the results of funded initiatives
• technology transfer collaborations that seek to further research, development, and pre-market commercialization
• late stage demonstration^{Endnote 1} that engages industry and end users with the goal to promote adoption
• scientific dissemination (publications, media outputs, and other initiatives) meant to reach a broad audience and improve the potential for adoption

Scientific dissemination, directly related to an activity, may be combined with each respective activity to efficiently transfer the knowledge, technology, and results to the sector. This will lead to adoption by producers and/or processors beyond the scientific community.

Eligible costs

Eligible costs are project expenses, claimed or contributed, that fall within the set program cost categories and respect all program limitations. To be considered eligible, all costs must be:

• included in the project application form budget
• related to the activities included in the work plan
• incurred within the work plan activities timeframe

Also, eligible costs are the incremental, relevant, reasonable, and essential expenses required to carry out the eligible activities to which they relate.

Eligible costs for Initial Recipients, in addition to the funds for further distribution, may include:

• salaries and benefits
• contracted services, including professional or specialized services for which a contract is entered into (for example, greenhouse gas emission reduction quantification)
• other direct project costs including translation, communications, outreach

Important notes

Costs you incur before we deem your application complete and after we confirm the project completion date will be ineligible for reimbursement, nor will those costs be considered part of your cost-share.

Costs incurred after your application is deemed complete, but before we both sign the contribution agreement, will be incurred solely at your risk without any obligation of reimbursement by the program.

Administration costs will be automatically calculated at 10% of the total eligible costs of the project shared between you and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at the project cost-share ratio. Administration costs can include project administration to manage activities outlined in the work plan, but not directly related to specific project activities, material and office supplies, office space and related utilities, etc.

Combined costs for Support Services and KTT will normally be limited to 10% of total eligible project costs.

Ineligible costs

Ineligible costs, which will not be reimbursed by AAFC nor recognized as your organization's contribution under this initiative, include:

• goodwill
• in-kind contributions^{Endnote 2}
• commercialization costs^{Endnote 3}
• legal fees
• hospitality
• capital assets^{Endnote 4}
• costs to establish inventory or related costs
• land or building purchases, or construction/infrastructure costs
• costs associated with patents
• government fees (regulatory, certification, applications, visas, etc.)
• refundable portion of the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST), value-added taxes, or other items for which a refund or rebate is received)
• performance pay (for example, bonuses, severance pay, retiree settlements)
• costs to prepare the Contribution Agreement or related schedules
• any portion of any cost that, in AAFC's opinion, exceeds the fair market value for that cost item
• any cost, such as amortization, that would not result in a direct, out-of-pocket expense for the recipient
• costs being reimbursed under an existing federal, provincial or territorial program

Expected results

Your application must show how your project will enhance the capacity of the Ultimate Recipients to research, develop and demonstrate transformative clean technologies that will provide broad agricultural and/or agri-food sector sustainability benefits related to greenhouse gas emissions reduction and other environmental benefits.