Finding capital to research and develop innovative municipal infrastructure products and services can be a barrier, so Communities of Tomorrow offers project funding to assist in that process.
The Communities of Tomorrow Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund (MIIF) is available to all companies, municipalities, and research entities that are engaged in developing innovations that create new municipal infrastructure solutions.
The Communities of Tomorrow MIIF supports the development of innovative infrastructure technologies and solutions that result in economically sustainable, longer lasting, and environmentally friendly products and services. The goal is to move promising technologies and ideas to a market ready product or applied municipal solution.
The fund supports innovations that solve real world problems that municipalities have identified as being of high importance and that are expected to create significant returns in terms of reducing costs for municipalities and having a positive economic impact.
Funding is generally provided in the range of $5,000 – $40,000; however requests above this range will be considered for high value showcase projects.
Criteria:
The MIIF is available for companies, researchers and municipalities. Primary activities targeted for support are roads and transportation, water and waste water, and soil remediation; however, innovations in other municipal infrastructure sectors are encouraged and will be considered.
Applications to the MIIF will be evaluated on criteria which include:
- Whether or not there is a compelling market need for the innovation
- How likely it is that the innovation can be successfully commercialized or applied to a create a municipal solution
- Whether or not a municipality has a willingness to invest resources in attaining a solution
- Whether the investigator or a strategic partner(s) is capable of developing the technology
Funding Streams:
The Municipal Infrastructure Innovation Fund supports two major streams:
- Acceleration Funds
Acceleration funding will be the primary area for supporting innovations. These funds will be directed towards accelerating high potential innovations that are in the later stages of development to being market ready products or services. Innovative projects under this stream will have quantified market requirements, a formalized commercialization plan and strong technical feasibility.
- Exploration Funds
Exploration funding will be directed towards early stage innovations needing further exploration in concept development, design prototyping, market validation and bench-scale testing.