The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) supports research by investing in research infrastructure.
CFI offers several different types of funding opportunities:
Applicants must receive approval to apply from the UTM OVPRI. Email grants.ovpri.utm@utoronto.ca.
John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF)
The JELF helps institutions recruit and retain outstanding researchers, acquire the tools that enable the innovative work of leading researchers, and offer highly competitive research support. The JELF is designed to serve the infrastructure needs of individual faculty or small groups of up to three faculty members where there is a need to share infrastructure.
This is not an open competition. Larger divisions at the University have been pre-assigned a portion of the University's CFI allocation. JELF projects thus need to be approved by the researcher's division as these grants spend down the finite divisional allocations.
If your unit has permitted you to apply for a JELF, please contact the OVPRI as soon as possible. Keep in mind that other U of T divisions may have different JELF application processes.
Upcoming Deadlines and Important Dates:
INTERNAL DEADLINES: TBA
Links
- John R. Evans Leaders Fund (unaffiliated) information webpage
- John R. Evans Leaders Fund – Guidelines for completing a proposal
- Policy and program guide
- VPRI JELF funding opportunity page
Innovation Fund
We are currently preparing for the 2027 competition. Sponsor deadlines and UofT deadlines have yet to be announced.
For questions and inquiries, please contact shaun.young@utoronto.ca.
The Innovation Fund provides continued investments in infrastructure, across the full spectrum of research, from the most fundamental to applied through to technology development. Only projects with total costs over $1 million will be considered. The CFI-IF is an “institutional initiative”, meaning that the University determines which projects will go forward to the national level competition with an allocation from our CFI-determined “ask envelope.”
Funding formula for a project:
40% CFI funding + 40% ORF-RI funding + 20% raised by researchers from other sources
- Find more information on the CFI website
- Find more information about the Ontario Research Fund - Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI)
- Find more information on U of T's internal processes
- CFI-IF 2025 competition Call for Proposals
- CFI Policy and Program Guide
Upcoming Deadlines and Important Dates
- UTM EOI deadline: February 9, 2026*
- UofT EOI deadline: TBA
- UofT pre-proposal deadline: June - July 2026
- CFI Notice of Intent (NOI) deadline: TBA
- UTM Draft full proposal deadline: November 2026 (estimated)
- RSO Draft full proposal & Internal Review deadline: November 2026 (estimated)
- UTM full proposal deadline: TBA
- UofT full proposal deadline: TBA
- CFI full proposal deadline: TBA
- Internal draft ORF-LIF full proposal deadline: TBA
- Internal ORF-LIF full proposal deadline: TBA
- ORF-LIF full proposal deadline: TBA
*Contact grants.ovpri.utm@utoronto.ca if you did not receive the announcement.