Living Lab Fund

MEOPAR has opened a new Call for Proposals for the Living Lab Fund, supporting existing, place-based partnerships working to address coastal and marine challenges across Canada.

The Living Lab Fund is built for partnerships that are already collaborating on the ground and want to formalize that work as a Living Lab, bringing together coordination, community relationships, co-design, and real-world testing under one structure. This fund is meant to help these groups build operational capacity to sustain collaborative problem-solving over time.

Funded partnerships will pursue one or more of the following: strengthening multi-sector coordination and operations; involving local partners and knowledge holders directly in identifying priorities and co-designing solutions; developing, prototyping, and refining social or technical innovations for locally identified challenges; and supporting coastal resilience and climate adaptation through locally grounded solutions. A Living Lab must include a minimum of three confirmed partners, including the applicant organization, spanning at least two sectors, with a letter of support from each.

This call is delivered in connection with BEACONSplus, an international Horizon Europe initiative on coastal climate adaptation, giving funded Living Labs a chance to share lessons and practices with a broader international network of coastal resilience sites.

Eligible recipients include Canadian post-secondary institutions, not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous organizations and governments, municipalities, research networks, and public engagement organizations; federal departments, agencies, and Crown Corporations are not eligible. Research-led applications must show strong, verified community partnerships.

Applicants are expected to embed Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) and Truth and Reconciliation principles into their team composition and activities, and priority will go to proposals from diverse teams that demonstrate this commitment clearly. Proposals are evaluated by MEOPAR’s independent review committee against four criteria: Living Lab Scope and alignment with MEOPAR’s objectives and Science Strategy, the strength of the Living Lab approach, co-design, and existing partnerships, the implementation plan, Living Lab capacity, and budget, and EDIA and Truth and Reconciliation considerations.

Up to $75,000 is available per project, for work carried out between April 1, 2027, and October 31, 2028.

The submission portal opens in October 2026 at meopar.smapply.io, with proposals due November 18, 2026, at 23:59 Eastern time.

For questions, contact Maéva Gauthier, Program Manager, Community-led Research, at .

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