Ocean Supercluster
Compared with the 242 other application forms we have read
- Money you have already spent can still count, up to 6 months back. Only 14 put a window on it.
- Scored mainly on market demand and growth. 19 lead with that.
- Publishes the score sheet reviewers actually use. Only 30 do.
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Eligibility & Details
What this program funds and who can apply
Program Description
Accelerates ocean technology development and commercialization to strengthen Canada's ocean economy.
Eligibility Requirements
- Funded partners must be OSC Industry Members (free). Industry Membership is open to for-profits incorporated in Canada, Indigenous organizations, non-federal Crown corporations funded by commercial activity, and R&D not-for-profits funded mainly by industry. Associate members cannot receive Technology Leadership funding
- Project must deliver an ocean solution; priority areas include energy transition, sustainable seafood, future transport and ocean climate solutions, and other relevant ocean-sector opportunities can also be submitted
- Technology Leadership projects need at least two co-investing Industry Investing Organizations and must include at least one SME with operations in Canada; no single participant may provide more than 80% of matched industry contributions
- Industry partners must provide at least 60% co-investment for Technology Leadership projects
- Funded partners can be based anywhere in Canada: Industry Membership is open to organizations from all regions of Canada
- All projects must conclude by October 2027
- Project demonstrates a clear commercialization pathway with scalable ocean economy impact
- Core Technology Leadership projects need a minimum OSC contribution of $400,000 and at least $1,000,000 in total eligible industry contribution
Quick Assessment
Funding Details
- Amount
- Up to $5 million
- Type
- Grant
- Level
- Federal
- Co-Funding
- Up to 40% of eligible costs
- Deadline
- Continuous intake (Core Technology Leadership and Innovation Ecosystem programs). Thematic Technology Leadership calls open periodically with their own deadlines.
Program Scorecard
Competition, effort, and approval at a glance
Difficult — significant preparation needed
High competition — many applicants
Complex — detailed documentation needed
How to Win
Insider tips, common pitfalls, and what successful applicants look like
Insider TipMembership is the prerequisite that most applicants overlook -- funded partners must hold the free OSC Industry Membership (Associate membership cannot receive Technology Leadership funding).
Rejection Pitfalls 10
- Not an OSC Industry Member (Associate membership cannot receive Technology Leadership funding)
Success Profile
Evaluation Criteria
How Ocean Supercluster judges your application
What the reviewer scores, what gets applications rejected, and what to write.
Distilled from 6+ source documents on oceansupercluster.ca, condensed into one brief. Sources as of 2026-09-10.
6 of the sources
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What Ocean Supercluster favours
Projects with a target customer collaborator may be favoured◦
“In addition, Projects that include a target customer as a collaborator may be evaluated more favourably.”
The form
Getting started
- 1Project Inquiries: Elaborateselection + written · 200 words
Explain your inquiry or project idea in 200 words or less.
- 2Become a member (Member Signup Form)selection + writtenno limit
Ready to become a member? Get started here! Once you complete this form a member of our team will be in touch.
Preliminary Qualification: Part 1
- 3Part 1: Permission to share responses for matchmakingcheckboxno limit
- 4Project titleshort answer · 5 words
Preliminary Qualification: tables 2A–2C
- 52A. Lead Partner (project key information table)tableno limit
- 62A. Project descriptionwritten answer · 100 words
Preliminary Qualification: project questions
- 7Project in nontechnical termswritten answer · 500 words
- 8New products and serviceswritten answer · 500 words
- 9Commercial opportunity and market size (TAM/SAM/SOM)written answer · 500 words
- 10How the project accelerates development and commercializationwritten answerno limit
- 11Technical aspectswritten answer · 500 words
- 12Regulation, policy, public perception; risks and mitigationswritten answer · 500 words
- 13Team skills, partner roles and gapswritten answer · 500 words
- 14Meaningful, inclusive and equitable partnershipwritten answer · 500 words
- 15Sales channel and supply chainwritten answer · 500 words
- 16End-users and customer engagementwritten answer · 500 words
- 17Differentiation from competitorswritten answer · 500 words
- 18Preliminary work packageswritten answer · 500 words
- 19Why OSC funding is neededwritten answer · 500 words
- 20Job creation, sector development and DEIwritten answer · 500 words
- 21Indigenous outcomeswritten answerno limit
- 22Additional capabilities and partners soughtwritten answerno limit
Preliminary Qualification: checklist and budget
- 23PART 2 – CHECKLIST (project selection criteria self-attestation)checkboxesno limit
- 24Preliminary Qualification budget workbook (Summary by Funding Source)spreadsheetno limit
Proposal stage (invitation only)
- 25Full proposal package (Appendix A checklist, proposal stage only)listno limit
Innovation Ecosystem: pre-qualification
- 26Innovation Ecosystem pre-qualification: executive summarywritten answerno limit
- 27PART 1 – GENERAL INFORMATIONtableno limit
Innovation Ecosystem: project proposal
- 28EXECUTIVE SUMMARYwritten answer · 250 words
- 29PROJECT DESCRIPTIONwritten answer · 500 words
- 30STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT AND OPPORTUNITYwritten answer · 500 words
- 31PROJECT VALIDATIONwritten answer · 250 words
- 32PROJECT RISKSwritten answer · 250 words
- 33PROJECT OUTCOMESwritten answer · 500 words
- Part 3PART 3 – PROJECT PLANtableno limit
- 35PART 4 – TEAM & EXPERIENCEtableno limit
- 36COMMUNICATIONS PLANwritten answer · 250 words
- 37PART 5 – MANAGEMENT & FINANCE: Project Budgettableno limit
- 38PROJECT MANAGEMENT STRUCTUREwritten answer · 500 words
- Part 6PART 6 – CLUSTER BUILDING: COMMUNITY AND ECOSYSTEM IMPACTwritten answer · 500 words
- Part 7PART 7 – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: OTHER ITEMSwritten answer · 250 words
bar = length the funder allows, from its stated limits
Judged against
Ocean Supercluster publishes its score sheet. in Premium
- 1
Does this solution matter to Canada's ocean economy?
Show them Show a distinctive ocean product or solution with demonstrated market pull, TAM/SAM/SOM figures, and the jobs and economic benefit to Canada.◦
In the funder’s words · 1
- Project relevance and contribution to the development and commercialization of ocean solutions 25%
- 2
Is the business case real and commercializable?
What to show, and the funder’s 1 criterion behind it in Premium
- 3
Who benefits, and how real is the collaboration?
What to show, and the funder’s 2 criteria behind it in Premium
- 4
Can this team deliver on plan and budget?
What to show, and the funder’s 2 criteria behind it in Premium
18 questions the reviewer answers about you, in Premium.
Where applicants fail
“Please keep to the suggested text format, answer every question, and do not delete the question text.”
“Do not remove, re-arrange question text, omit answering questions, or re-format these templates, including title pages, headers, and footers.”
Premium · the rest of this brief
See all 13 rules that can reject you and every criterion you are judged on. Then we draft your application for you.
11 more rules that can reject you · 5 more criteria · 38 more prompts
Do you pass?
Each one can rule you out. Tick the ones you meet.
The project
Innovation moving TRL 3-4 to 7-8
Demonstrate true Canandian innovation with commercial viability of product(s) and/or solution(s) with a goal of advancing from TRL 3-4 to TRL 7-8 throughout the project
Your partner
No partner above 80% of match
No more than 80% of matched industry contributions (cash or in-kind) shall come from one Project Participant; the remaining 20% must come from a cash and/or in-kind contribution from additional Project Participant(s).
2 things this funder says you do NOT need, in Premium.
Documents to attach
Ticks are kept on this device.
The money
OSC reimbursement rateup to 40% of eligible costs
The OSC will reimburse up to 40% of Total Funded Eligible Project Costs contributed by Participants, with a minimum OSC contribution of $400,000.
Industry match floor$1,000,000 minimum industry contribution
The total eligible industry contribution must be at least $1,000,000.
Cash share of matchat least 75% cash
At least 75% of industry match must be defined as cash contribution, meaning cannot be in-kind.
In-kind maximummax 25% of industry contributions
Matched in-kind contributions cannot exceed 25% of the total industry contributions to the project.
Ecosystem contribution12.75% of reimbursement to ecosystem
Each Investing Industry Member contributes a portion of their OSC reimbursement to ecosystem-building activities (12.75%).
Payment timing100% upfront, reimbursed quarterly
Participants must pay 100% of the project costs upfront (on a cash basis) for a specific period, of which they will be reimbursed on a quarterly basis upon submission of a claim for reimbursement and reconciliation purposes.
CapEx pre-approvalpre-approval over $1 million
Pre-approval by the OSC is required if the purchase of an individual CapEx or the purchase of integrated assets that depend on one another to function, exceeds $1 million.
Innovation Ecosystem matchup to 75% of eligible costs
Match – Up to 75% of eligible project costs
Your share$2M OSC needs $3M industry, $5M total
This means that if OSC is asked to provide $2 million in funding and the program co-funding rate is 40%, Industry Members must provide $3 million in funding ($5 million in total eligible project costs).
Stackinggovernment assistance capped at 100% of costs
The total Canadian government assistance for any project, including federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal, cannot exceed 100% of eligible project costs incurred and paid.
Costs before approvalno reimbursement beyond 6 months prior
OSC will not reimburse funded eligible project costs that were paid more than 6 months prior to the claim/reconciliation being submitted.
What it pays for · 1
- Eligible Project Costs include cash costs incurred and paid for the project and In-kind contributions made to the project on or after the date of the letter of award which are incremental, reasonable, and directly relate to achieving the outcomes of the project as defined in the project Statement of Work.
What it does not pay for · 8
- Costs incurred prior to the date of the letter of award, and after the project end date.
- The costs of routine administration and operations, and any allocations of overhead.
- Honoraria (except honoraria to support Indigenous participation in projects), gifts, donations, entertainment expenses and alcoholic beverages.
- Provisions for contingencies.
- Dues and memberships.
- Discretionary severance or separation packages.
- Costs for which any project consortium member organization is eligible for a rebate or tax credit from federal, provincial, territorial, or municipal government source.
- Meals and incidentals.
From application to money
- PQ review and feedbackPQ reviewed, feedback meeting before invite
- Submit your prequalificationEmail PQ template and budget
- Full proposal if invitedSubmit full proposal package A–H if invited
- Panel review and ratificationPanel assesses, Board ratifies selection
- Funding in placeAll funding in place before contract
- Quarterly claims and reportsPay upfront, claim quarterly within 20 days
In the funder’s words · 6
- PQ review and feedback
- OSC staff review your Preliminary Qualification and meet you for feedback before any invitation to a full proposal.
- Submit your prequalification
- Email the Preliminary Qualification Word template and the Excel budget to [email protected], copying all primary contacts.
- Full proposal if invited
- If invited, submit the full proposal package A–H from the zip OSC provides, signed by all partners.
- Panel review and ratification
- The Project Assessment Panel and Project Selection Committee assess and recommend, and the OSC Board ratifies the selection.
- Funding in place
- All funding and financing must be in place before the project is contracted.
- Quarterly claims and reports
- You pay project costs upfront and claim quarterly; the Lead Partner reports on all participants' activity.
Quoted lines are word for word from the source documents; lines marked ◦ are our reading of them.
Everything you need to win Ocean Supercluster
Not a marketing summary. The actual checklist, intel, and stack strategy reviewers look for.
- 10 rejection pitfalls reviewers flag — so you catch them first
- 10-document checklist with what each reviewer is actually checking
- Your Application Game Plan — the print-ready PDF the preview below describes
- 9-step application timeline with prep hours per step
- Insider tip from program officers on what separates winners
- 8-program stacking strategy to combine with compatible funding
- Success profile + evaluation criteria — exactly what reviewers score on
Application Playbook
Step-by-step process, required documents, and expenses
Application Steps
Required Documents 10
Eligible Expenses 13
Ineligible Expenses 9
Intake Periods
Deadline Notes
Ineligible Organizations
Funding Stack Strategy
Compatible programs, clawback risk, and combined funding potential
Compatible Programs
Clawback Risk
Low RiskHow Ocean Supercluster Compares
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Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions founders most often ask about Ocean Supercluster