Agriculture, Water, and Land Challenge (Emissions Reduction Alberta)

Program Description

A $60 million Emissions Reduction Alberta call that pays up to half the eligible cost of field pilots, commercial demonstrations and first-of-kind commercial deployments of technology for agriculture, agri-food, forestry, water treatment, land reclamation and remediation, and waste-to-value. Requests run from a $250,000 minimum to $8 million, or up to $10 million for exceptionally strong projects, and every ERA dollar must be matched at least 1:1 by private money from the applicant or partners. Almost any kind of lead applicant can apply, from farmers, processors and SMEs to municipalities, non-profits, post-secondary institutions and individuals, and the applicant need not be based in Alberta, but the project must be piloted, demonstrated or deployed in the province. Expressions of Interest are due December 16, 2026 at 5 p.m. Mountain Time; shortlisted applicants then submit a Full Project Proposal, with funding decisions planned for June 2027.

Eligibility Requirements

• Open to all categories of lead applicant, including producers, ranchers, processors, forestry organizations, landowners, technology developers, Indigenous communities and organizations, municipalities, utilities, industrial facility owners and operators, small and medium-sized enterprises, industry associations, applied research organizations, post-secondary institutions, not-for-profit organizations, government research laboratories and individuals
• Applicants do not have to be based in Alberta, but every project must be piloted, demonstrated or deployed in Alberta and show a clear Alberta value proposition; out-of-province applicants should identify local deployment partners
• The project must include field testing, piloting, demonstration or first-of-kind implementation of a novel technology, system, process or practice, with enough operating time to generate performance data
• By project completion the technology must reach field pilot, demonstration or first-of-kind commercial implementation (for example TRL 6 to 9); it may start below TRL 6 if the plan to get there is credible
• The project must be novel and additional to business as usual; technologies proven elsewhere qualify when the project is a first-of-kind Alberta deployment, an adaptation to Alberta conditions or a new use case
• Must deliver measurable environmental outcomes (such as GHG reductions, water savings or reuse, soil or land improvement, reclamation, reduced waste or biodiversity gains) and measurable economic outcomes, each against a stated baseline
• ERA funding must be matched at least 1:1 with private funding from the applicant or partners; funding does not need to be secured at the EOI stage, but is typically required by the time the Contribution Agreement is signed
• The applicant should identify the end-user need and show meaningful end-user participation or validation
• A project that has already received ERA or Fuel Innovation Fund funding is screened out, and projects covered by other ERA programs such as SEMI or the Methane Reduction Deployment Program are out of scope
• ERA is unlikely to fund more than one proposal from any given organization in this Call