Call for Innovation: Women in Climate Tech (Canada)

As part of CICE’s mission to advance diversity and equity within the climate tech sector and support a just energy transition, they’re investing up to $3 million in climate tech and clean energy ventures led by women.

The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is focused on taking action to secure a low carbon future. CICE recognizes that there is a gender imbalance in venture funding that can only be corrected through sustained collective effort. Their goal is to foster an environment where all individuals, regardless of gender, have equitable opportunities to participate and succeed.

Empowering founders who identify as women can unlock the potential for groundbreaking technologies, drive decarbonization efforts, and generate significant economic value. As the world moves toward net-zero emissions, diverse leadership in climate tech will be critical in shaping the future of sustainable innovation.

Uses of Project Funds

• Project funds can be used to pay salaries, consultants, and reasonable direct costs of project management. Funds can also be used to secure demonstration sites (including the operating costs of demonstrations), build prototypes, integrate system components, demonstrate pilot production, or scale up manufacturing.
• Project funds cannot be used to enhance normal business operational capabilities, purchase capital equipment that is indirectly related to and not core to the proposed innovation, perform capital or leasehold improvements or purchase furniture or other equipment to be used in the routine course of business. Project funds cannot be used for advertising or other forms of business promotion. Human resource costs cannot be ‘marked up’ to include blanket overheads.
• Projects must be started within 6 months of executed funding agreement dates, project funding will be aligned with a contribution agreement between the proponent and CICE that will be negotiated as part of the final award process. The average project length within CICE’s portfolio is between 15-18 months, with a maximum project length of 24 months. Project funding will be paid against completion of milestones. Project funding will be withdrawn in the event projects are significantly delayed or milestone objectives are not adequately met.

Eligible Projects

• CICE’s 2024 Call for Innovation, focusing on Women in Climate Tech, aims to drive commercial development of hard tech solutions targeting direct emission abatement, reduction, or removal, as well as soft tech solutions that enable GHG reductions and removal, such as measurement, monitoring, or verification technologies. CICE will prioritize initiatives in the climate tech sector founded by individuals who identify as women.
• To comply with CICE’s mandate, favoured projects will fall between Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-9. Proposals must include a plan for regulatory approvals that is aligned with their proposed timeframe for implementation. Projects must start within 6 months of executed funding agreement dates. CICE focuses on advancing projects from a lab-based environment to testing and validation in pilot or early-stage demonstration projects with a partner or initial customer. While feasibility and FEED studies may be considered as components of a larger project, CICE will not fund these studies as standalone initiatives. CICE will prioritize solutions that offer significant co-benefits, including carbon reduction, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, and enhancing community resilience and socio-economic benefits through emission abatement efforts. CICE will favor initiatives that demonstrate potential use cases within CICE’s four focus areas: battery and energy storage, carbon management, low-carbon hydrogen, and low-carbon fuels.
• Project activities may include, but are not limited to, demonstrations and pilot projects, innovative implementation solutions, novel linkage of system components, mitigation or monitoring technologies, and business model innovations.

Eligibility Criteria

• This program is focused on B.C. climate tech companies led by founders or co-founders who identify as women and hold equity in the business A founder is defined as an individual who has established the business and maintains equity shares. CICE will also consider applications from companies with women in C-suite roles (e.g., CEO, CTO, CFO, CMO) who hold equity. Additionally, CICE will consider applications from founders within these groups based outside B.C. if they have a project in the province. CICE will give priority to companies with Indigenous ownership and empowerment.
• Companies must demonstrate their capability to complete the proposed project with effective management and operational skills to enhance the company’s commercial potential.
• CICE is especially interested in supporting projects that advance hard tech decarbonization or software that facilitates hard tech solutions, particularly those innovations that can be replicated across multiple jurisdictions to achieve global climate impact.
• Consortia of companies collaborating on a project are encouraged and accepted. In these cases, it is recommended that a single lead company serve as the applicant.
• CICE is committed to enabling meaningful gender equity in climate tech. Informed by existing research, this call focuses on individuals who identify as women. Additionally, CICE is dedicated to exploring pathways to support non-binary and other gender diverse individuals. They invite founders who identify as non-binary or otherwise gender diverse in climate tech to apply to this opportunity and connect with them to share their innovative work.

For more information, visit CICE.