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Our Emerging Projects Fund supports projects that transform ideas into innovations – essentially research in its earliest stage. The intent of the Emerging Projects Fund is to provide funding to pursue new ideas with potential to grow into bigger, collaborative projects or technology/knowledge transfer opportunities that will have positive economic or social impact for the province of New Brunswick. The maximum investment for emerging projects is $25,000 per application and limited to a maximum of 50 per cent of the total cost of the project.

May be awarded to research faculty at any of NBIF’s eligible institutions (see award administration guidelines for details).

Expenses must be directly linked to the activities of the proposed project and can include:
Briefly, the award may be used for:

  • Purchase of lab equipment, software or licenses
  • Lab personnel salaries, such as students or postdocs
  • Travel directly related to the research project (e.g. to a conference in order to disseminate findings)
  • Purchase of computers or office equipment for use by the candidate or their research group

Exceptions can be approved by NBIF (with a written request/rationale).

Please see the detailed eligibility guide in the NBIF Award Administration Guide. While the candidate may use Emerging Projects dollars to leverage other sources of funding, the NBIF award must still be fully spent within the 1-year award period and cannot be leveraged against any other NBIF funds.

Submit applications via the NBIF Application portal. Once the application is submitted, NBIF will work to evaluate and process NBIF will evaluate applications in accordance with program/internal guidelines and evaluation criteria. Notices of decision (NOD) will be sent to the institution’s research administration office and the applicant following review. Annual budgeting for this program is subject to change.

The award start date will be the date that the applicant has indicated in their submission. If that date is more than six months from the submission date, expect follow-up from NBIF as our standard six month window to confirm award conditions applies in this situation. The award end date is 1 year later, at which point all remaining funding must be returned to NBIF. A maximum extension of 6 months is possible, on written request and subject to NBIF approval.

After 1 year, the recipient will be asked to provide a detailed technical report along with a final financial report.

Award Size: $25k.

An application for a standard award ($25k) requires 1:1 matching funds. Matching funds may consist of cash or in-kind contributions, but in-kind contributions cannot exceed more than 50% of the matched funds.