It is a $60-million funding opportunity from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) for technologies that move from pilot to practice in Alberta. It supports field pilots, demonstrations, and first-of-kind commercial projects that deliver measurable environmental and economic benefits.

Proposals are evaluated in two stages: an Expression of Interest (EOI), followed by a Full Project Proposal (FPP) for shortlisted applicants. Successful applicants then enter a contribution agreement with ERA and carry out the project. These FAQs cover the EOI stage and the terms of funding.

Alberta’s agriculture, agri-food, forestry, and waste-management sectors form an interconnected system tied to the province’s land, soil, and water. They face extreme weather, water availability pressures, soil degradation, growing reclamation liabilities, contaminated and disturbed sites, and rising waste volumes. Operators also face tight margins and escalating costs that make it hard to adopt new technology.

Promising solutions need field testing, scaling, and operational validation before producers, processors, operators, municipalities, and landowners can adopt them. Funding for pilots, demonstrations, and first-of-kind deployments generates evidence that end users trust and reduces the technical, commercial, regulatory, and adoption risks that slow new technologies down.

The Challenge is supported by the Government of Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Fund. The TIER Fund collects the carbon price paid by large industrial emitters in Alberta, and ERA invests it in technologies that reduce emissions and strengthen Alberta’s economy.

ERA’s annual approach includes a broad spring Industrial Transformation Challenge and targeted calls for specific sectors. This Challenge is a targeted call for agriculture and agri-food innovation and for resource-stewardship solutions for soil, land, reclamation, remediation, water, and waste. It emphasizes end-user adoption and productivity, and recognizes measurable water, soil, land, biodiversity, ecosystem, waste, and resource-efficiency outcomes alongside greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits. Applicants unsure which program fits their project can contact applications@eralberta.ca.

The Challenge is open to all categories of lead applicant, including producers, ranchers, processors, forestry organizations, landowners, technology developers, Indigenous communities and organizations, municipalities, utilities, industrial facility owners and operators, small and medium-sized enterprises, industry associations, applied research organizations, post-secondary institutions, not-for-profit organizations, government research laboratories, and individuals.

Applicants may be based inside or outside Alberta, but projects must be piloted, demonstrated, or deployed in Alberta and offer significant benefits to the province. Applicants should identify local deployment partners where appropriate.

Collaboration is encouraged where it strengthens technology validation, field deployment, commercialization, adoption, financing, or knowledge sharing. All applicants should identify the end-user need the project addresses and show meaningful end-user participation or validation, along with a credible pathway to implement, operate, finance, and adopt the solution beyond the ERA-funded scope.

Projects must have well-defined objectives, milestones, deliverables, timelines, and measurable outcomes. They must include field testing, piloting, demonstration, or first-of-kind implementation of a novel technology, system, process, or practice, with enough operating time to generate performance data and lessons learned. Projects should validate performance under Alberta conditions and advance practical adoption.

Applicants must clearly define the scope of work for which ERA funding is requested and the benefits tied to that scope. Related work done before or alongside the project can be described, but should be clearly identified as outside the funded scope.

The Challenge is not prescriptive. Eligible technologies may be physical, digital, biological, infrastructure-based, or integrated systems, provided they are tied to deployment in a real operating environment, end-user adoption, and measurable environmental or economic outcomes. There are no separate funding streams: all projects are evaluated together against the same criteria.

Technologies proven elsewhere may qualify if the project is a first-of-kind deployment in Alberta, adapts the technology to Alberta conditions, applies it to a new use case, or resolves meaningful technical, commercial, regulatory, or adoption risks.

The following non-exhaustive examples show the kinds of technology areas that fit:

• Agriculture: robotics, automation, precision agriculture, sensing, and AI-enabled decision support; genetics, biologicals, and precision livestock technologies; nutrient and manure management and enteric methane reduction; co-product and residue management; on-farm energy systems and agrivoltaics; and water-efficient production and irrigation.
• Agri-food: controlled-environment agriculture and greenhouses; food and beverage processing, cold storage, drying, fermentation, and packaging; electrification, heat recovery, and process optimization; and upgrading of co-products into new products and fuels.
• Soil management: enhanced geological weathering; soil amendments such as biochar; novel land-use practices for GHG mitigation and carbon sequestration; and dual-use solutions such as agrivoltaics, silviculture, and energy crops.
• Reclamation: wellsite and infrastructure reclamation and closure; well sealing and abandonment; reforestation, ecosystem restoration, and biodiversity recovery; and closure-readiness technologies.
• Remediation: in-situ and ex-situ treatment of hydrocarbon and contaminant-impacted soil; groundwater remediation and salinity management; tailings treatment and dewatering; and biological remediation and phytoremediation.
• Water treatment and management: treatment of agricultural, forestry, industrial, produced, mine, and municipal wastewater; water recovery and reuse; and technologies that reduce treatment cost, energy use, or residual waste.
• Waste management: waste-to-value and recycling for food, agricultural, forestry, construction, industrial, municipal, and resource-sector waste; advanced waste-to-energy; and novel agricultural landfill methane abatement.
• Cross-cutting opportunities: applied AI, sensing, and digital twins tied to deployment; nature-based solutions and Indigenous-led land restoration; measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification technologies tied to field deployment; integrated agriculture-energy-industrial systems; and consortium or systems-level proposals that combine complementary technologies, end users, and partners.

By project completion, the technology must reach prototype, field pilot, demonstration, or first-of-kind commercial implementation (for example, TRL 6 to 9). Technologies may start earlier if the applicant shows a credible plan to reach the required stage and justifies why the project objectives are achievable from the current starting point.

• Field test or pilot: scale-up of prototypes to representative pilot size, followed by in-field testing in an operational environment.
• Demonstration: near- or full-commercial-scale systems demonstrated in an operational environment, with the technology approaching its final commercial form.
• First-of-kind implementation: design, construction, and operation of the technology in its final commercial form and at commercial scale, intended to operate for its full commercial life. This includes technologies de-risked elsewhere that are being deployed in Alberta for the first time.

Technologies below this range may be eligible for other ERA support. Contact applications@eralberta.ca to discuss before submitting.

Projects must go beyond business as usual. Prior announcement or development of a project does not rule it out, but applicants must show how ERA funding enables or accelerates activities, learning, risk reduction, or outcomes that would not otherwise happen. Novelty can include a first-of-kind deployment in Alberta, adaptation of a proven technology to Alberta systems, a new use case, or a novel configuration of new and existing technologies.

Using commercially available components does not disqualify a project if the funded scope materially advances an integrated system, validates a new application, or addresses meaningful deployment risk. ERA will not fund projects where the main barrier is solely financial, or routine implementation of a fully commercial solution. Applicants are responsible for showing why their project is novel and additional.

All projects must be piloted, demonstrated, or deployed in Alberta and show a clear Alberta value proposition. Benefits may include reduced or avoided GHG emissions, lower emissions intensity, water savings or reuse, improved soil or land outcomes, accelerated reclamation or remediation, reduced waste, improved biodiversity or ecosystem services, increased productivity, and stronger economic competitiveness.

Proposals must show a measurable change in environmental and economic performance. Environmental outcomes include GHG reductions, lower energy or water use, greater water recovery or reuse, improved water quality, better soil health or nutrient retention, restored land, reduced waste, and improved biodiversity or ecosystem function. Applicants must identify an appropriate baseline and a credible approach to quantifying results.

Economic outcomes should support a strong end-user value proposition and may include yield or quality gains, lower energy or operating costs, higher profitability, input and labour efficiency, reliability, resilience, new product lines, export opportunities, job creation, and investment attraction.

The Challenge does not support:

• Standalone pre-construction work or studies, including fundamental R&D, engineering or feasibility studies, front-end engineering design, market studies, and roadmaps without a capital or operational component.
• Standalone software or digital solutions without direct field deployment, end-user adoption, or measurable outcomes.
• Business-as-usual practices, technologies, or deployments, including fully commercial anaerobic digestion, biogas, or landfill-gas technologies without material innovation or deployment risk, and routine integration of commercial technologies using standard engineering practices.
• Development of protocols or policy recommendations for GHG quantification, reclamation and remediation, water management, and similar topics. Projects that measure, monitor, and validate new practices are eligible where the focus is technology or practice validation rather than policy development.
• Business-as-usual projects already covered by TIER protocols (such as standard no-till practices) or by other ERA programs.
• Financial support that solely addresses a project financial gap.

Supporting research, studies, and software development may be included as part of a larger project that culminates in an eligible deployment.

Yes. There is no limit on the number of EOIs an applicant may submit, but applicants should bring forward only their strongest, highest-quality projects. ERA may limit the total funding or number of projects awarded to any one organization to ensure a diverse group of recipients, and is unlikely to fund more than one proposal from the same organization. ERA may ask applicants to identify their highest-priority projects.

A project that has already received ERA funding cannot be funded again. Contact applications@eralberta.ca before applying for a new phase or a distinct project related to previously funded work.

Up to $60 million CAD, subject to ERA’s discretion and the availability of funds.

Applicants may request up to $8 million CAD in ERA funding per project. ERA anticipates that most funded projects will receive at least $250,000. Applicants whose need is in this range are encouraged to discuss it with ERA before submitting, and applicants who require less than $250,000 are advised to seek support from other sources.

There is no maximum total project budget. Applicants must justify the amount requested, and ERA may award less than requested. Projects with exceptional value propositions may be considered for additional funding on a case-by-case basis at ERA’s sole discretion.

ERA funding must be matched with private funding on at least a 1:1 basis. For every dollar from ERA, the applicant and/or private partners must provide at least one dollar. Both cash and eligible in-kind contributions from private funders count toward the match.

• ERA does not match other federal, provincial, or international government funds provided directly to the project. Government funding can still be part of the project and does not disqualify it, and ERA has no formal limit on stacking as long as ERA’s contribution is matched at least 1:1 by the lead applicant and private partners.
• Funding from post-secondary institutions may count if it is not sourced from provincial government or other public dollars. Municipal funding is generally eligible if it comes from operational revenue, such as property taxes, user fees, permits, and fines, rather than provincial grants.
• Funding from other ERA programs, including the Fuel Innovation Fund, cannot be matched or stacked with this Challenge.

Examples:

• A project has $8 million in eligible expenses and the applicant and private partners contribute $4 million in cash. ERA could contribute up to $4 million (50% of eligible expenses).
• A project has $1.75 million in eligible expenses. The applicant and private partners contribute $0.5 million and the Government of Canada contributes $0.75 million. ERA could contribute up to $0.5 million, because only private funds count toward the 1:1 match.

No. Confirmed financing strengthens a proposal, but it is not required at the EOI or FPP stage. ERA typically requires funding to be secured when the contribution agreement is signed, which is due 60 days after successful funding notification.

Use ERA’s Eligible Expenses and Cost Instructions when preparing your budget. Expenses are eligible for reimbursement only if they are an actual cash outflow by the lead applicant. In-kind donations from partners or service providers cannot be reimbursed, but eligible private in-kind contributions can count toward the 1:1 match.

Include all project costs, eligible and ineligible, in your proposal so ERA can see how its contribution is leveraged. Ineligible expenses do not disqualify a project.

ERA will only contribute to costs incurred on or after the FPP submission deadline (tentatively March 2027, to be confirmed when applicants are invited to the FPP stage). Earlier costs are not eligible and cannot be matched by ERA. No payments are made before a contribution agreement is signed, and costs incurred before signing are not reimbursed if no agreement is reached.

Successful applicants must start work (engineering design, equipment procurement, construction, and so on) within 120 days of funding approval, currently planned for June 2027. Applicants must show in their proposals that the project is advanced enough to meet this timeline. A delayed start of up to 12 months may be requested to align with facility operations, turnarounds, or regulatory processes, at ERA’s sole discretion.

Most projects are expected to take three years from start, plus up to one additional year of operation where applicable to generate performance data for final reporting and knowledge sharing. All construction and commissioning must be complete within the three-year period.

Projects whose outcomes take longer to realize, such as soil carbon, seasonal growing cycles, land remediation, reforestation, and wetland restoration, may request an extended structure:

• Implementation phase: up to three years, during which 85% of ERA’s contribution is spent. The applicant submits an interim completion report and receives a portion of the holdback.
• Monitoring phase: the remaining 15% supports monitoring, measurement, and validation for up to seven more years (up to 10 years in total), ending with an updated final outcomes report. Claims must be at least 12 months apart.

Extended structures are considered project by project at ERA’s sole discretion.

Successful applicants sign a contribution agreement with ERA covering the terms of funding, maximum ERA funding, project scope, work plan, milestones, deliverables, performance targets, payment schedule, and reporting requirements. ERA provides a draft to shortlisted applicants during the FPP stage. ERA will consider only minor changes and does not negotiate terms before making a funding decision.

ERA contracts with a single entity, normally the lead applicant. A strong consortium can strengthen a proposal, but an alternate contracting party requires ERA’s approval and the lead applicant’s endorsement.

ERA pays on a milestone basis, after eligible expenses have been incurred and the milestone completed. ERA’s contribution to each milestone normally follows the same share as its share of the total project budget. For example, if ERA is funding 25% of total eligible costs, it typically pays 25% of the eligible expenses incurred at each milestone. The milestone and payment schedule is set out in the contribution agreement.

Funding recipients must report on project outcomes, achievements, and lessons learned, including actual and projected GHG reductions, job creation, and other environmental, economic, and social benefits. This includes confidential data sharing with ERA and public reports.

Projects with quantifiable GHG benefits must provide a GHG measurement, monitoring, and verification (MMV) plan for the life of the project, and may need third-party GHG quantification at completion. ERA may also ask recipients to host knowledge-sharing workshops or take part in lessons-learned activities, depending on the project.

Intellectual property is addressed in each contribution agreement and depends on the project, but these principles generally apply:

• Background IP and third-party technology stay with their original owners.
• Technology developed through the co-funded project is owned by the successful applicant and its partners, in line with their agreements. Recipients are expected to commercialize it or make it available on reasonable commercial terms for the benefit of Alberta.
• ERA keeps non-commercial use rights in perpetuity to project results, including technical data, reports, and analysis.
• Project outcomes, results, and learnings will normally be made public at the end of the project.

The EOI documents you submit become ERA’s property on delivery. This refers to the documents themselves, not to the technology or innovations described in them.

ERA works with funding organizations across Alberta and Canada. During submission, you can choose whether to let ERA share your application with trusted funding partners to explore additional funding. ERA shares applications only for this purpose and only with partners that have a non-disclosure agreement in place. Your choice does not affect how your proposal is assessed.

ERA follows Alberta’s access-to-information and privacy legislation and its Privacy, Data Security and Confidentiality Policy, which requires information about applicants and ERA’s business to be kept private, secure, and confidential. ERA also has an AI Policy in effect that sets expectations for the responsible use of AI tools, including limits on entering confidential, personal, sensitive, or proprietary information into AI systems unless approved safeguards are in place. Read the full policy at eralberta.ca/privacy. Applicants and project partners must also keep the Call Guidelines confidential, except as needed to prepare a Full Project Proposal requested by ERA.

EOIs must be submitted through Grant Manager by Wednesday, December 16, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Late, partial, or incomplete submissions will not be accepted, so applicants are encouraged to submit well in advance.

The anticipated schedule for the full process is:

• EOI submission deadline: December 16, 2026
• Shortlist notification: late January 2027
• Full Project Proposal deadline: March 2027
• Applicant oral presentations: late April 2027
• Funding decisions: June 2027

ERA may change these dates or cancel the Call at any stage.

Create an account in ERA’s Grant Manager system at grant-manager.com/erims, complete all mandatory forms, upload the required documents, and finalize the submission. Uploading documents without completing every online step is not sufficient.

Grant Manager sends an automatic confirmation email. If you do not receive one, check your junk folder and the status of your submission in Grant Manager. If the problem continues, contact IMS@eralberta.ca.

Only the required documents and information are reviewed. Additional attachments or materials will not be considered.

• Expression of Interest document (required): completed using ERA’s template. It is the basis of the evaluation and must address each evaluation criterion.
• Milestone summary table (required): found at the end of the EOI template. It can be in the same PDF as the EOI or a separate attachment.
• Mass and energy balance (required): an overview of the key inputs and outputs.
• Letters of support (optional): from partners, funders, site hosts, and others, combined into a single PDF.
• Online information (required): general project details entered into Grant Manager.

• Use the response template provided in Grant Manager. Applications that do not use it may not be considered.
• Submit the EOI document in English as a PDF of no more than 10 letter-sized pages, including all text, graphics, and tables. Extra pages are removed and not evaluated.
• Use Calibri or Arial 11-point font, at least 1.0 line spacing, and margins of at least 2.54 cm (1 inch).
• Upload one EOI document and one combined letters-of-support document per submission. The page limit does not include letters of support or the other required documents.
• Use short file names (30 characters or fewer, no special characters) that include the proposal number assigned by Grant Manager and the document name.

• Guidelines, template, evaluation, and project fit: applications@eralberta.ca
• Grant Manager and submission help: IMS@eralberta.ca
• General inquiries: applications@eralberta.ca

Read this FAQ, the guidelines, and the template before contacting ERA. Please allow at least one week for a response, and use these addresses rather than ERA’s general information or media email, which may cause delays. ERA will not pre-review or give feedback on EOI content. Shortlisted applicants are assigned a proposal advisor and work with ERA’s GHG team during the FPP stage.

Once you submit, you may discuss your proposal only with ERA’s Applications team. Contacting reviewers, ERA executives, ERA Board members, or Government of Alberta representatives about an active application is prohibited, may be reported to the independent Fairness Monitor, and could lead to disqualification. This does not apply to official Call events such as applicant presentations. If you have a fairness concern, contact the Applications team promptly.

The process is competitive: proposals are assessed on their own merits and compared with the other proposals received. A team of subject matter experts, supported by ERA’s technical team and service providers and overseen by an independent Fairness Monitor, evaluates each EOI against the criteria below. ERA’s Board of Directors makes all final funding decisions.

ERA intends to fund a diverse portfolio of opportunities of different scales and commercial readiness levels, and may consider portfolio balance and strategic fit when selecting projects. Meeting the eligibility criteria does not guarantee a project will be shortlisted or funded.

A project may be screened out if it:

• Does not meet the eligibility criteria, or is not aligned with the intent, scope, or focus of the Call or ERA’s mandate.
• Is assessed to be business as usual, or the funding request is assessed to address only a financial barrier.
• Risks severe detrimental environmental, economic, or social side effects.
• Will not be piloted, demonstrated, or deployed in Alberta, has insufficient in-Alberta scope, spending, or benefits, or has insufficient relevance to Alberta conditions, systems, or end users.
• Does not meet the minimum submission standards, including being written in English, being readable and comprehensible, providing sufficient information, and following the submission requirements.
• Is the same project that has previously received ERA funding.

Each eligible proposal is scored on the criteria below. The prompts in the EOI template give more detail on what each criterion covers.

This is a highly competitive process, and only the highest-quality EOIs are invited to submit an FPP. Quality means both the strength of the project against the criteria and the clarity and completeness of the written proposal. Successful EOIs have typically:

• Started with the commercial end in mind: a clearly defined end-user need, meaningful participation or validation from end users, and a work plan prioritized and sequenced to reach commercial objectives.
• Made a compelling technical case: explained why the solution was chosen over alternatives and compared its benefits against incumbents and emerging options using quantitative metrics.
• Quantified claims with credible evidence: supported every major claim with data, analysis, or clear rationale, including a techno-economic analysis scaled to the technology’s maturity.
• Defined measurable outcomes: credible baselines, assumptions, and quantification approaches for environmental and socio-economic benefits in Alberta, for the project and at full commercialization.
• Addressed key risks: identified technical, operational, commercial, regulatory, financing, and adoption risks, with credible mitigation built into the work plan.
• Shown an achievable plan and readiness to proceed: a developed scope, site, timeline, milestones, roles, deliverables, partner team, and financing pathway (a high-level Gantt chart is recommended), with confirmed elements or a clear line of sight to securing them.
• Offered a credible path beyond the funded scope: customer or market pull, a viable business model, and an approach to market entry, scale-up, knowledge transfer, and replication.

These characteristics are illustrative and do not guarantee success.

Applicants whose EOIs best align with ERA’s mandate, the goals of the Challenge, and the evaluation criteria are invited to submit a detailed Full Project Proposal. Details on the FPP stage, including how FPPs are prepared and evaluated, are provided to shortlisted applicants at the time of invitation.

All applicants are notified by email once the EOI review is complete. Applicants whose proposals are not accepted may arrange a short debrief call with ERA to receive feedback. Details are included in the notification email.

No. Grant Manager includes voluntary identity questions that help ERA understand the audiences it reaches. ERA asks that they be completed by the person leading the project for the lead applicant. Responses are kept confidential and are not considered in the evaluation.