Impact Round 2025

Impact Projects refer to large-scale, multidisciplinary research initiatives designed to develop and implement new technologies and solutions for the electrification of society. A broad range of academic, public, community and private partners must be involved in Impact Projects to demonstrate real and significant impacts focusing on innovation, economic viability, equity, and the well-being of society. There will be approximately 10 Impact Projects selected by Volt-Age. Each successful project will be awarded up to $4M funding from the Volt-Age CFREF, for projects lasting 4 years. Impact Projects should be articulated around students. Our goal is to recruit up to 250 PhD students in the Volt-Age Cohort who will be at the heart of Volt-Age Impact Projects.

Living Labs are inclusive spaces to tackle collective challenges through collaborations between researchers and different societal stakeholders across the innovation cycle, from co-defining problems to research and development to testing. Volt-Age Living Labs must exhibit three main characteristics: co-creation of research, engagement of diverse stakeholders, and taking place in a real-life context. Up to two (2) Living Labs will be selected from this first Call for Proposals for Living Labs based on existing relationships. Each successful project will be awarded up to $1.5M funding from the Volt-Age CFREF funds, with projects lasting 3-4 years. A separate call for Living Labs based on New Partnerships will be launched at a later date.

The Notice of Intent is designed to allow researchers to announce their intention to apply for an Impact Call Grant. The NOI includes details of the research focus, proposed members of the research team, potential partners, and impacts relating to Volt-Age research goals.

NOIs will be posted publicly on the Volt-Age Concordia website so that they can be viewed by other researchers, allowing for additional collaborations and partnerships to emerge. The NOIs will not be reviewed or assessed by Volt-Age ; they are only informational.

We advise any researchers to review NOIs posted before applying to the Impact Call. 

NOIs are non-binding and don’t impose any commitment regarding your Impact project application. 

Note: For an individual to submit an Impact Call Application as a Principal Investigator, they must be listed as a PI or Co-Applicant Investigator on an NOI. 

Notices of Intent will be published in the presentation below as they are received. 

Impact round NOIs Presentation by Volt Age

The Curation Process was designed to gather perspectives and feedback from researchers, administrators and students to help guide the creation of the Impact Call for Proposals. The Curation Process included a total of 16 events engaging approximately 200 individuals, including response collection activities, workshops, webinars, and informal meetups. 

During the review process, the review committee assigns a rating to each application. These ratings are used to create a ranked list of applications, which the Volt-Age CFREF uses to allocate funding. Funding is awarded in order of ranking until all available funds are exhausted or no additional applications meet the funding criteria.

Coming Spring of 2025.