Challenges

User-Centric Verifiable Digital Credentials

The Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (TBS) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) are seeking a standardized method to issue and rapidly verify portable digital credentials across many different contexts, thereby reducing human judgement error, increasing efficiency and ensuring digital credential veracity using cryptography.

Sponsoring department: Shared Services Canada (SSC) and Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (TBS)

Funding mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Data Centre Discovery Tool with Options Analysis

Shared Services Canada is seeking an innovative solution that will collect and analyze information from multiple data centres in order to provide options for reducing/consolidating infrastructure and strategies/plans for data centre migrations.

Sponsoring department: Shared Services Canada (SSC)

Funding mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Identification of Microbial Mixtures

Health Canada (HC) is seeking a method to accurately identify and characterize micro-organisms found in microbial mixtures, and predict their interactions that could mask or enhance adverse effects with a view to determining risks to the environment and human health.

Sponsoring department: Health Canada

Funding mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Point of Care Diagnostics to combat Antimicrobial resistance

Health Canada is seeking novel, easy to use and cost-effective rapid point-of-care diagnostic and detection tool(s) that identifies and characterizes antibiotic resistant bacteria and/or distinguishes between viral and bacterial infections to address the rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections.

Sponsoring department: Health Canada

Funding mechanism: Grant

Machine learning to improve organ donation rates and make better matches

Health Canada is seeking technological approaches in Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence to predict the success of possible donor-recipient matches and transplant outcomes to support evidence-based decision-making about organ donation and transplantation.

Sponsoring department: Health Canada

Funding mechanism: Grant

Automated redaction of video recordings for the purposes of Access to Information requests

The CBSA is seeking a solution that will allow video and audio recordings to be automatically processed to ensure that people and objects other than the requestor of the audio or video files are not identifiable.

Sponsoring department: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)

Funding mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Plastics Challenge — Development of Next Generation Bio-Based Foam Insulation

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is seeking the development of novel foam insulation products (spray foam and rigid foam board) that are bio-based (predominantly derived from domestic forest residue), and offer similar insulation values as petroleum-based products and are comparable in terms of cost.

Sponsoring Department: Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)

Funding Mechanism: Grant

Portable Package Auto Sampler

The Canada Border Services Agency is seeking a technological solution to handle and extract samples of potentially highly toxic substances safely at the border in a timely manner.

Sponsoring Department: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Postal Small Packet and Package Inspection

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is seeking a radiation shielding solution that will enable the continuous flow and processing of small packets and packages in/out of an x-ray systems without being impeded (i.e., stopped, slowed, or redirected) on a conveyor belt.

Sponsoring Department: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Kinetic Energy Harvesting on Marine Vessels

Coast Guard seeks solutions for harnessing kinetic energy from the roll, pitch and yaw of marine vessels with the goal of reducing energy consumption and reliance on externally-sourced and stored energy.

Sponsoring department: Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Coal Mine Tailings Pond

The challenge is to develop a cost effective & innovative method of stabilizing the coal mine tailings currently under sub-aqueous containment behind the Victoria Junction Tailings Dam so that the Dam can be decommissioned.

Sponsoring Department: Public Services and Procurement Canada

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Tracing the Steel Industry Supply Chain

The challenge seeks to create a novel application of a digital tracing system enabled by blockchain and artificial intelligence for the Canadian and possibly North American steel supply chain for business users and government.

Sponsoring Department: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Advanced Decision Support for First Responder Command and Control

The Department of National Defense (DND) is seeking a solution that will provide innovative, advanced real-time decision support solutions for civilian municipal, provincial, and federal (Royal Canadian Mounted Police and DND) first responder command personnel (police, fire and paramedic) during critical incidents such as: active shooters, rural-urban wildfires, infrastructure collapse, natural disasters and large public order events where multiple jurisdictions and agencies work together. While there are many components and sub-occupational groups involved in critical incidents, the emphasis for this challenge is on developing promising tools related to the cognitive-behavioral aspects of the command function. The solutions should improve the probability of making good decisions during high risk events, while reducing the cognitive load of incident command personnel.

Sponsoring Department: Department of National Defence (DND) Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Logistics and Resource Management of Emergency Response Assets

The Department of National Defense (DND) is seeking a solution that will provide innovative, advanced real-time decision support solutions for civilian, municipal, provincial, and federal (Royal Canadian Mounted Police and DND) first responder command personnel (police, fire and paramedic) during critical incidents, where multiple jurisdictions and agencies work together. Although there may be a number of components involved in critical incidents, the focus for this challenge is on the creation of new tools and technologies to identify, acquire, track and distribute available resources (defined as equipment, supplies and personnel).

Sponsoring Department: Department of National Defence (DND) - Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Up Hands Free Fire Fighting

The Department of National Defense (DND) is seeking a solution that will provide innovative devices, applications, personal protective equipment technology supports to help position Canadian firefighters to work in a more Up Hands Free (HF/HF) mode of operation on the fire ground.

Sponsoring Department: Department of National Defence (DND) Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Marine Biotoxin Detection Devices for Shellfish

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is seeking to develop innovative devices for detecting marine biotoxins encountered in Canadian waters with increasing frequency.

Sponsoring Department: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Innovative Device for Plant Pest Surveillance

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is seeking an innovative device that could be used to detect volatile organic compounds associated with the presence of targeted invasive alien plant pests across Canada.

Sponsoring Department: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Innovative Attractants to Wood Boring Insects

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is seeking the development of a chemical compound that would attract a wide variety of wood boring insects attacking standing hardwood tree species.

Sponsoring Department: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Audio Quality Enhancements for Remote Interpretation Services

Sponsoring department: Public Service and Procurement Canada (PSPC)

This challenge is seeking innovative solutions to provide superior sound quality for remote interpretation (RI) as current devices do not provide sufficient voice frequency (VF) range for interpretation and can cause workplace injuries and interruptions of service. The Bureau is seeking a solution that meets ISO standards.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Improving Robot-Environment Interaction

This challenge seeks innovations that will improve robot interactions with either humans or changing environments.

Sponsoring Department: National Research Council (NRC)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Moulding of High Performance Composites Materials

The aim of the challenge is to develop a technology for moulding Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite materials into complex geometry parts featuring double curvatures.

Sponsoring department: National Research Council (NRC)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Composite Material Manufacturing Simulation Software

This challenge is seeking an advanced simulation tool, capable of accurately predicting the ply by ply movement, deformation and defect generation/distribution in a composite laminate undergoing forming process at any stage in the process.

Sponsoring Department: National Research Council (NRC)

Funding Mechanism: Contract

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Preventing Contraband Delivery via Air and Ground

Sponsoring department: Correctional Services Canada

Correctional Services Canada (CSC) is seeking an innovative and cost-effective technology solution to detect, track and prevent contraband items from entering the perimeter via Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as drones, and fence throw-over.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Detection System for Wireless Communication

Sponsoring department: Correctional Services Canada

Correctional Services Canada (CSC) is seeking a technological solution to manage/prevent unauthorized use of wireless communication devices thereby preventing inmates from conducting illegal activities using such devices.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Plastics Challenge — Sustainable Fishing and Aquaculture Gear

Sponsoring department: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)

This challenge seeks economically and technically viable innovations in fishing and aquaculture gear or gear-related technologies to reduce or eliminate ghost fishing and aquatic plastic pollution caused by Canadian fisheries and aquaculture industries.

Life Sign Monitoring System (LSMS)

Sponsoring department: Correctional Services Canada

Correctional Services Canada (CSC) is seeking a solution to monitor the life signs of inmates and identify critical conditions that would typically lead to death in custody and provide prompt notification of such situation thereby reducing the time for staff to respond to the situation.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Improving the Internet Connectivity of Users in Remote Locations

Sponsoring department: Shared Services Canada (SSC)

Shared Services Canada is seeking solutions that would enable low-cost high-speed Internet access to Government of Canada employees and Canadian citizens who work or live in remote areas around the world.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Enhancing Pedestrian and Cyclist Road Safety

Sponsoring department: Transport Canada (TC)

Save lives — and reduce injuries — by accelerating the adoption of effective, low-cost technologies that improve pedestrian and bicyclists' safety around commercial vehicles.

Scaling Down Precision Agriculture

Sponsoring department: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

Precision agriculture technology is tailored to farms above 500 acres in size, so with farms below that acreage, or with an annual income below $75,000, the rate of adoption of these technologies declines significantly.

Efficient Soil Sampling Techniques

Sponsoring department: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) is seeking a solution that allows for greater homogeneity of soil samples through their efficient and consistent collection, leading to greater reliability and accuracy of test results.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Plastics Challenge — Remove and Manage Ghost Fishing Gear and Marine Debris

Sponsoring department: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)

Seeking a viable and economically feasible solution to remove plastic ghost fishing gear and other marine litter from aquatic environments through a technological innovation that can be deployed on existing vessels and infrastructure.

Plastics Challenge — Improved Compostibility of Bioplastics

Sponsoring department: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)

There is a need for greater compatibility of bioplastics (i.e. plastics derived from agricultural OR wood-based biomass) with home and municipal composting.

Plastics Challenge — Construction Waste

Sponsoring department: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)

Innovative solutions are needed to increase the recovery, reuse and recycle of plastic wastes generated from construction activities.

Plastics Challenge — Separation of Mixed Plastics

Sponsoring department: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)

Effective solutions are needed to improve the separation, sorting, and processing of mixed plastics to produce high-quality recycled feedstocks and create opportunities for new markets.

Plastics Challenge — Recycling of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Plastic

Sponsoring department: Transport Canada (TC)

This challenge seeks novel, economically viable, and ecologically sustainable solutions for recycling or reusing glass fiber-reinforced plastic in a manner that is energy efficient and recovers as much material as possible (diverting from landfill).

Plastics Challenge — Food Packaging

Sponsoring department: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)

Improve the design of film food packaging to reduce the generation and disposal of plastic waste.

Earth Observation Images Processing and Management System

Sponsoring department: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is seeking an automated system outside of PHAC infrastructure that would enable the pre-processing of large sets of Earth Observation (EO) data and the storage and overlaying of user defined ground truth data (GT) on pre-processed EO images to help address a wide range of public health needs.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Innovative Platform to Facilitate Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

Sponsoring department: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is seeking an innovative platform/platforms that will provide Canadians with immediate access to relevant, trustworthy, public health information adapted to their specific questions and needs, based on core content from PHAC in areas such as but not limited to immunization and travel health.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Haptic System

Sponsoring department: National Research Council of Canada (NRC)

This challenge is seeking an affordable, robust and good resolution bimanual haptic feedback stylus system that interacts, via Wi-Fi/Bluetooth mode, with mobile platforms.

Electroencephalography (EEG) and Vital Signs Integrated Existing Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) sets

Sponsoring department: National Research Council of Canada (NRC)

This challenge seeks the development of a user-friendly and robust device for monitoring electroencephalography (EEG) and multiple vital signs integrated into existing extended reality sets.

Measurement of Cold Spray

Sponsoring department: National Research Council of Canada (NRC)

This challenge seeks to measure in-flight metal particle temperature in a coldspray process.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Platform Corrosion Detection and Prevention

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence (DND)

The Department of National Defence (DND) requires new methods/processes to identify/detect corrosion and the development of proactive corrosion control measures.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

High Energy Lasers

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence (DND)

The Department of National Defence (DND) requires the capability to detect and defeat non-cooperative objects by means of compact, efficient and robust laser sources.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Night Vision Ergonomics Enhancement

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence (DND)

The Department of National Defence (DND) is seeking an innovative solution for enabling enhancement of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operators' vision such as night vision goggles (NVGs) and counterbalance.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Additive Manufacturing for High Performance Systems

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence (DND)

The Department of National Defence (DND) is seeking new solutions to advance the field of additive manufacturing technologies for the fields of defense and security.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Connected Vehicle and Engineered Surfaces Challenge

Sponsoring department: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

This challenge seeks novel solutions that incorporate Frequency Selected Engineered Surfaces (FSES) technology into connected vehicle designs as a means to move towards wireless connectivity within vehicles, and as a tool to manage interference emanating from vehicles into other vehicles, and into the overall urban environment.

3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing: Metal Powder Bed Density Test Equipment

Sponsoring department: National Research Council of Canada

Seeks new solutions to enable the testing of metal powder bed density in additive manufacturing processes.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Engineered Surfaces Challenge

Sponsoring department: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

This challenge seeks novel solutions that incorporate the use of Frequency Selective Engineered Surfaces (FSES) in the research and development of new building materials, construction products and design tools using FSES tuned to operate in the below 6GHz (potentially addressing the WiFi interference issue) and above 24GHz range (potentially addressing the issues of radio frequency propagation).

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics for Advanced Autonomous Space Systems

Sponsoring department: Canadian Space Agency

The challenge is to apply artificial intelligence and big data analytics to bring tangible advancements in the operation and utilization of space assets in support of government operations, public safety, public health and discovery.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Advanced Coatings and Materials for Personal Protective Ensembles

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence

To identify and develop innovative solutions and technologies for materials and coatings to enhance Individual Protective Ensembles to counter Chemical/Biological/Radiological threats.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.

Robust "Beyond Line of Sight" (BLOS) Communications in Satellite-Denied Environments

Sponsoring department: Department of National Defence

To provide robust approaches to over-the-horizon/BLOS communications in satellite-denied environments.

Please refer to the tender notice for this challenge on Buy and Sell.