Alberta's Agriculture, Water, and Land Challenge opens with up to $8 million in grants

What was announced

Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), funded through Alberta's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Fund, has launched a new $60 million call for the Agriculture, Water, and Land Challenge. The program funds field pilots, commercial demonstrations and first-of-kind commercial deployments of novel technologies in agriculture, agri-food, forestry, water treatment, land reclamation and remediation, and waste-to-value sectors.

ERA will cover up to 50 percent of eligible project costs, with funding ranging from $250,000 to $8 million per project. Projects deemed exceptionally strong may receive up to $10 million. ERA expects most funded projects to receive at least $500,000 and asks applicants seeking $250,000 to $500,000 to contact the program first.

Who can apply

The program is open to a broad range of applicants, including individual farmers, ranchers, processors, forestry organizations, landowners and technology developers. Municipalities, utilities, Indigenous communities and organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises, industry associations, post-secondary institutions, not-for-profits, government research laboratories and individuals may also apply.

Applicants do not need to be based in Alberta, but every project must be piloted, demonstrated or deployed in the province and demonstrate a clear Alberta value proposition. Out-of-province applicants should identify local deployment partners.

Project requirements and outcomes

Projects must involve field testing, piloting, demonstration or first-of-kind implementation of a novel technology, system, process or practice. The technology must reach field pilot, demonstration or first-of-kind commercial stage (equivalent to Technology Readiness Level 6 to 9) by project completion. Technologies already proven elsewhere qualify if the project represents a first-of-kind Alberta deployment, an adaptation to Alberta conditions or a new use case.

All projects must deliver measurable environmental outcomes—such as greenhouse gas reductions, water savings or reuse, soil improvement, land reclamation, reduced waste or biodiversity gains—and measurable economic outcomes, each measured against a stated baseline. ERA requires mandatory 1:1 matching of ERA funding with private money from the applicant or partners; funding need not be secured at the Expression of Interest stage but is typically required before the Contribution Agreement is signed.

• Ineligible: standalone lab research, feasibility studies, market studies, software without field deployment, routine commercial deployments, policy development and requests that only fill a financing gap

Timeline and application process

Expressions of Interest are due December 16, 2026 at 5 p.m. Mountain Time through ERA's Grant Manager portal. Shortlisted applicants will submit a Full Project Proposal in late March 2027, with funding decisions planned for June 2027.

The Expression of Interest must be submitted as a PDF of no more than 10 letter-sized pages in Calibri or Arial 11-point font with 1-inch margins, accompanied by a Milestone Summary Table. ERA recommends applicants read the full Call for Expressions of Interest guidelines and FAQ and email questions to the program office, allowing at least a week for a response.

What to know before applying

ERA will not fund more than one proposal from any given organization in this call. Projects that have already received ERA or Fuel Innovation Fund funding are ineligible, and projects covered by other ERA programs such as SEMI or the Methane Reduction Deployment Program are out of scope.

The 1:1 private match must come from cash or in-kind sources; other government funding can be part of a project but does not count toward the match requirement. ERA only contributes to costs incurred on or after the Full Project Proposal deadline and will not reimburse costs incurred while the application is under review.