Frequently Asked Questions

An organization can submit multiple projects in different categories as eligible, however, the same project cannot be submitted under multiple categories or streams.

There is no set limit in terms of the number of proposals to be funded. There is an approximate amount of dollars that will be allocated to the present call which will define the number of projects approved.

The NCC anticipates granting approximately $20M in funds to support approximately $60M+ worth of cybersecurity activities in Canada in the 2025 Call for Proposals.

Should the project be successful, Eligible Expenses and Matching Contributions incurred as of May 9th, 2025, are eligible to be claimed.

Matching contributions do not need to be committed when submitting your LOI for projects submitted under Category 1 – Accelerated Projects or Category 2 – New Projects. However, Letters of Commitment are required for Category 1 projects by the end of Stage 2. Projects under Category 2 are strongly encouraged to submit Letters of Commitment as part of your Project Proposal in Stage 2 and are required at Stage 3 of the Grant Competition.

The table provided in the 2025 Call for Proposals Guide describes the TRL scale as defined by the Innovative Solutions Canada. 

No, the Lead Organization (the organization with which the Project Lead is affiliated) does not need to be a NCC Member at the time of LOI submission. However, should the LOI be selected to proceed to Stage 2 of the Grant Competition, the Lead Organization will need to be a member in good standing by the Stage 2 close deadline (i.e., base membership paid) in order for the proposal to be considered further.

Open Source (OS) software operates under different licensing models that are designed to protect software, which has been developed by others, and are used as inputs into projects that may generate additional software that may or may not be held as Open Source after it is produced.

The Nation Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC)/ the Cyber Security Innovation Network (CSIN) obligations regarding Intellectual Property (IP) restrict the sale of resultant project produced IP without the explicit permission of the Ministry. All Open Source licenses currently available are held under an understanding that the software will continue to be held open and are therefore not allowed to be “sold”. Thus, the copyright (and corresponding IP) assigned to Open Source software cannot be exclusively sold, which is the only limitation placed on IP by the NCC/CSIN. Therefore, using and producing Open Source software is permitted, as it exists or will exist in the public domain.

Note: Many companies using Open Source approaches make money by providing services that support the use of Open Source systems and this is both allowed, and encouraged.

NCC grant recipients can choose their own publication venues and processes.

The NCC strongly encourages applicants to get the strongest Letters of Commitment possible, as soon as possible.

The NCC understands that financing agreements between parties may take time to be fully negotiated. In lieu of such ultimate agreements, the NCC will require parties to provide Letters of Commitment to outline the intention of the parties with respect to project financing.

Letters of Commitment from Participant Organizations must contain, at a minimum, the following information:

• Confirmation that the Participant Organization has read the Project Proposal and understands the scope of their commitment to the project;
• the proposed start and end dates for the commitment to the project;
• confirmation that they will provide a financial commitment to the project – the NCC will accept “commit to provide no less than $x dollars but no more than $y dollars”, if the final contribution has not been determined, but a dollar amount (CDN $) must be provided.

Letters of Commitment must be signed by an Authorized Signatory of the Participant Organization and provided on official organizational letterhead.

For Category 1 – Accelerated Projects, Letters of Commitment for matching contributions are required to be submitted by the close of Stage 2 / Project Proposal (due May 9^th, 2025, for the 2025 Call for Proposals): Letters of Commitment for matching contributions are required to be included as part of the Project Proposal in Stage 2.

For Category 2 – New Projects, Letters of Commitment are strongly encouraged to be submitted as part of your project proposal for Stage 2. Should the application proceed to Stage 3, these Letters will be required for the Administrative Review (due August 5^th, 2025).   Projects that do not provide Letters of Commitment for all Participating Organizations by the Stage 3 deadline may be considered incomplete. The applicants will be expected to describe how the absence of these funds will impact the plans described in the Stage 2 submission to allow the NCC to fully review the application.

For Category 3 – Top Up, Letters of Commitment must be submitted with your project propsoals (due October 1^st 2025).

Although Letters of Commitment are not required at Stage 2, applicants should be aware that greater specificity and completeness indicate a higher level of project readiness and will be considered positively during the Evaluation Review period.

The final Letters of Commitment and / or Financing Agreements must be in place before the Ultimate Recipient Agreement is signed.

Previously awarded projects that have a fully executed agreement with the NCC by July 3^rd, 2025, are eligible to apply under Category 3 – Top-ups. The top-up will be considered for projects that can demonstrate an expansion of scope/impact of the project should more funds be awarded. Matching funds are required for the top up request. The launch of Category 3 will be in the next few months with specific application materials to be provided by June 16^th 2025. Projects will be required to submit an LOI by July 3^rd 2025.

For Category 1 and 2 Projects, LOI submissions must be submitted through the NCC’s Adsigno Portal. For help navigating the Adsigno Portal, please review our User Guide.

For Category 3 – Top Ups, applications materials will become available by June 16^th 2025.

Visit the Application Process page for more information.

Project Leads are required to have an Authorized Signatory to consent and submit the LOI and Project Proposal submissions. The Authorized Signatory is an individual who holds responsibility to submit the application on behalf of the Organization that the Project Lead is affiliated with and has the authority legally bind the Organization to financial and contractual decisions.

For Categories 1 & 2, all applicants will be notified in the first week of April 2025 , whether their LOI has been selected to proceed to Stage 2.

For Category 3, LOIs are due on July 3^rd 2025 with notifications sent out by July 31^st 2025.

Grant Competition Timeline – Categories 1 and 2

Submissions received after the stated deadline or outside of the identified submission channel(s) will not be considered.

Grant Competition Timeline – Category 3 

Once you register in the Adsigno Portal, click on the LOIs box to select the appropriate funding stream. Once you complete the eligibility screening questions, the LOI application tab will have an “LOI Summary button” near the top that generates a PDF. This can be used as a template.

Please reach out to projects@ncc-cnc.ca if the generated PDF does not meet your accessibility needs.

Collaborators can be from any of the following types of partner organizations:   

• Centres of expertise on cybersecurity affiliated with post-secondary institutions; 
• Industry; 
• academia; and
• not-for-profit organizations. 

Collaboration within an organization is acceptable, however it is encouraged that collaborators be external to the organization and from across Canada. The geographic location and diversity of the team will be considered as part of the Project Proposal evaluation in Stage 2.  

Collaborations outside of Canada are possible, but costs incurred outside Canada cannot exceed 10% of the awarded NCC funds. Intellectual Property arrangements will also need to comply with the NCC’s Ultimate Recipient Agreement that is signed with the awarded organization.   

Note: The NCC follows the Government of Canada’s Guidelines and Tools to Implement Research Security, which includes Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern. Should your project be awarded, the Lead Organization (Ultimate Recipient) will be required to complete an attestation that these Government of Canada policies be adhered to.

As the NCC strives to develop a pan-Canadian network of cybersecurity professionals and experts, we will review projects at the LOI phase and identify any potential collaborations. Applicants will be notified of these potential collaboration opportunities and although not required, we would strongly encourage these potential collaborations be included in the Project Proposal if appropriate. 

To participate in our funding competitions, an organization must be eligible to receive and administer NCC funding.  

Eligible organizations include:  

• Post-secondary institutions;  
• industry;  and
• non-profit organizations.         

To be eligible, an organization must be:  

• Situated in Canada or carry out their activities primarily in Canada; and   
• a member in good standing with the NCC to proceed to Stage 2 of the Grant Competition Process should your LOI be selected.  

Additional clarification and documentation may be requested by the NCC to confirm eligibility.   

The Project Lead identified on a project must have a full-time position (full time employment)/tenure-track, or tenured appointment with the Lead Organization with which they are affiliated.

A List of Eligible Expenses can be found in the Pre-Award Program Guide. 

Matching contributions can be from any non-federal government (Canadian) source, including:

• Centres of expertise on cybersecurity affiliated with post-secondary organizations;
• private sector;
• Canadian post-secondary organizations;
• not-for-profit and/or philanthropic sources; and
• provincial/territorial/municipal governments.

Projects have different maximum funding requests and matching contributions depending on the stream selected.

[1] Spearhead projects are not eligible to apply in this category. Lower cost projects with matching funds should apply in the New Projects category and the NCC reserves the right to move projects into the most appropriate stream.

*Applicants are strongly encouraged to meet the recommended level of matching contribution for their proposals. This is a part of the Evaluation Review Criteria as described in the 2025 Call for Proposals Guide. Projects with high merit in other Evaluation Review Criteria may be funded with lower matching contribution ratios at the discretion of the NCC.

Matching contributions may be either monetary (cash or actual costs including employee salaries) or non-monetary (“in-kind”).   

Cash – any monies that would have to be spent for the project if this was not being provided from another source.  

In-Kind – means cash-equivalent goods or services that replace an incremental expense that would be paid with the awarded funds.  

It is recommended that matching contributions are comprised of 50% cash as defined above. The relative composition of matching funds (cash versus in-kind) is part of the Evaluation Review Criteria.  Projects with high merit in other Evaluation Review Criteria may be funded with lower cash contribution ratios at the discretion of the NCC. 

Federal funds are not eligible as a source of matching contributions; however, we encourage you to contact us at projects@ncc-cnc.ca to discuss further. Provincial, territorial and municipal government funds are eligible as a source of matching contributions.

Existing funds (from non-federal sources) can be used for the projects if they are not committed to another research project. All funds need to be used for eligible project costs, toward activities related to the project. Conceptual and/or financial overlap occurs when the ideas in the proposal are, or appear to be, the same ideas that are supported by other sources (applicant’s other projects/programs). Complementary parts of an applicant’s research program can be supported by different sources. The onus is on the applicant to differentiate between the proposal to be covered by NCC and other research programs/projects supported by other sources. Funds requested from NCC must support the proposal. It is not sufficient to simply state that there is no overlap.

Federal sources of funds are not eligible as matching funds. This option is not available for the current 2025 Call for Proposals.

Spearhead projects are research and development projects that originate from post-secondary educational institutions (PSE) and/or not-for-profit (NFP) organizations but do not have matching contributions identified.

Spearhead projects should be novel in nature and explore riskier early-stage ideas. However, they are NOT curiosity-driven projects. A spearhead project should have defined goals and milestones but should be sufficiently flexible to adapt as new insights emerge. Thus, the approaches to the goals may change but the goals should remain the same. Changes to goals and milestones will need to be reported in advance of such alternations as specified in the reporting requirements of the Program Guide.

Note: Although no matching contributions are required for a spearhead project, a plan must be provided to describe how a broader set of collaborators will be engaged over the lifespan of the project. These must be measurable (e.g., a private sector partner will be onboarded by Y2/Q3 to provide expertise and/or funding; or three not-for-profit organizations will be approached to work on an initiative to expand to areas beyond the applicant’s local jurisdiction). The purpose is to expand the project’s participants and broaden its potential impact beyond the lab. In addition, it is anticipated that this could allow for a subsequent application to the NCC in the Standard category to continue to move the idea forward.  

Standard projects are research, training, or commercialization projects that are larger in scope and have clearly defined goals and milestones.   

For Standard projects matching contributions do not have to have been fully secured at Stage 1 or 2 of the grant competition process but must be in place and documented with commitment letters, by the time the Stage 3 submission is made. Matching contributions can be drawn from the public sector including post-secondaries (see Pre-award Program Guide for detailed allowable matching), the private sector, philanthropic sources, provincial/territorial and municipal government sources, and/or not-for-profit organizations.

 Yes, companies can submit commercialization projects without partnering with academic institutions. 

Yes, training projects for K-12 students will be considered for funding.  

The NCC is dedicated to growing a pan-Canadian network with private and public sectors to lead world-class cybersecurity innovation and talent development and to increase cybersecurity-related economic activity in Canada. Membership is open to organizations from Industry, Academia, and the Not-for-Profit sector in Canada.  Visit the NCC membership page to learn more about membership categories and benefits.

Yes, the Lead Organization (the organization with which the Project Lead connected to the grant submission is affiliated) will need to be a member in good standing receive funds For Project Proposals that proceed beyond Stage 3, Partner Organizations identified as receiving NCC funding from the project must also become members in good standing of the NCC. Other Partner Organizations identified are encouraged to become members of the NCC. This base membership applies to the full term of the award. An additional 3.5% incremental membership fee based on the amount of awarded grant funds applies to successfully funded projects.

The Lead Organization does not need to be an NCC Member at the time of Letter of Intent (LOI) submission. However, should the LOI be selected to proceed to Stage 2 of the Grant Competition, the Lead Organization will need to be a member in good standing (i.e., base membership paid) to progress to Stage 2.

Please visit the NCC Call for Proposals page, or review the 2025 Call for Proposals Guide for additional information about NCC funding opportunities and membership.

No, the NCC membership fee is not an eligible expense of the NCC or of Cyber Security Innovation Network (CSIN) program.

Yes, organizations can become NCC members at any time. Please visit the NCC membership page or reach out to membership@ncc-cnc.ca with your questions.

Base membership fees are due at the time of joining as a member organization.

NCC membership is one-year in duration, and runs from April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026.

Currently, the NCC does not offer an individual membership category. Organizations can join as NCC members and the benefits will extend to the organization’s staff, and, as appropriate, faculty, students, and members.