Launch of Round 11 of the Ontario Research Fund -Research Excellence (ORF-RE) program
Overview
The Ministry of Colleges and Universities has launched Round 11 of its Ontario Research Fund -Research Excellence (ORF-RE) program. The overall purpose of this program is to provide research institutions with the funding necessary to support the operational costs of major projects that are of strategic value to the Province of Ontario.
ORF-RE Program Funding Ratio and Application Streams
This stream:
- is open to all research disciplines
- funds projects from $500,000 to $2,000,000
- funds projects up to a maximum of 5 years
This stream:
- funds projects that demonstrate strong commercialization potential, where the innovation is at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3 or higher
- Targets projects in the following sectors:
- information communications technologies
- life sciences and medical devices
- industrial technologies
- requires collaboration with an Ontario-based company
- funds projects from $300,000 to $1,000,000
- funds projects up to a maximum of 4 years
- connected, autonomous, electric vehicles (including battery and powertrain technology)
- industrial/mining technologies related to electric vehicles, spanning the entire value chain from minerals to manufacturing to recovering resources from vehicles or their component parts at end-of-life.
Eligible contributions and expenditures
From the program guidelines: "Contributions, both in-kind and cash, are eligible if received (but not spent) up to one year before the application due date. Since the application due date for this round is March 21, 2022, contributions secured after March 21, 2021 (but not spent) are eligible. Expenditures are only eligible after the project starts. The earliest a project can start is September 28, 2021 which is the date the current round was announced."
More Information and Deadlines
Program materials, including ORF-RE Round 11 guidelines, application forms and registrations for upcoming program online information sessions can be found here.
Deadline: Full applications are due to the Ministry on Monday April 5, 2022.
As these submissions require a great deal of advanced planning, if you are interested in applying to the ORF-RE program, you are asked to notify the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) no later than November 30, 2021.