Administered by National Research Council of Canada · Funded by Government of Canada · NRC
Cost-shared R&D grants (60–80% of eligible costs) plus advisory services from a dedicated Industrial Technology Advisor. Canada's flagship innovation program for SMEs.
NRC IRAP provides non-repayable contributions to innovative Canadian SMEs (<500 FTE) working on R&D that has strong commercialization potential. Funding is cost-shared — typically 60% of labour, 80% of subcontractors. Every recipient is assigned an Industrial Technology Advisor (ITA) who acts as a technical mentor and gatekeeper.
The total program pool, per-organization max, and what your contribution has to be.
Aggregate annual funding across all recipients. Includes federal and provincial allocations where applicable.
Cost-shared contribution — NRC funds 60–80% of eligible R&D labour and subcontractor costs. Company contributes the remaining 20–40%. Typical range for first-time recipients is $100K–$500K per project.
Run your business through the Grant Finder for a live eligibility check against every requirement in this program.
Tell us a few things about your business and we'll run a live eligibility check against this program — and surface every other Canadian program you qualify for.
Find your matches →What our team has learned from filing this program hundreds of times.
IRAP is the highest-value non-dilutive program in the federal system for R&D-active SMEs — but access hinges entirely on getting an ITA assigned and building the relationship. Cold applications don't work; you need warm intake. Worth pursuing if you can defend commercialization potential and have IP that's genuinely innovative. Not worth pursuing for pure services businesses or lifestyle software.
The practical sequence, from a firm that files these claims every week.
IRAP is not a cold-application program. The first step is meeting an ITA — either through referral, an ecosystem partner, or by contacting NRC IRAP directly. The ITA becomes your relationship manager and gatekeeper.
The ITA helps shape the project into an IRAP-eligible R&D initiative — commercial upside, technical merit, and cost structure. This shaping typically takes 2–4 iterations before a formal proposal is invited.
Detailed project plan, R&D methodology, milestones, budget, team credentials, market analysis. NRC IRAP has a standardized proposal template that the ITA provides.
Proposals are reviewed at the regional level by an IRAP committee. Decisions typically come 4–8 weeks after formal submission.
On approval, sign the contribution agreement. Reimbursement is claim-based — monthly invoicing against approved cost categories, typically 60% of eligible salaries.
What you need ready before you apply.
The failure patterns we see most often in the review-desk piles.
Applications, approvals, and dollars funded across recent cycles.
Live estimator using this program's rate and cap. Drag the slider to see the impact on your project.
Enter the total cost of the project you want to fund with NRC IRAP. We'll estimate the grant amount, your matching contribution, and your net cost.
Estimates are illustrative — actual funding depends on eligibility, cost classification, and review outcomes. For a firm quote, book a call with our team.
Anonymized case studies from GovMoney's practice.
18-month project on distributed inference optimization. ITA introduced through ecosystem partner. Project stacked with Scale AI in year 2. Successful commercialization to two enterprise customers during the project period.
24-month cardiac monitoring device R&D. Two-phase project with Health Canada regulatory milestone as phase-gate. IRAP funded 65% of engineering salaries + subcontracted specialist consulting.
GovMoney's team can prepare, submit, and defend your NRC IRAP application end-to-end.
PhDs, CPAs, and ex-CRA auditors prepare, submit, and defend your application — audit-ready, on a success-fee basis. You stay focused on the business; we handle the forms, the narrative, and the back-and-forth with the agency.
Book a free consult →Questions we get from applicants every week.
Technically yes, in practice no. Cold applications through the general IRAP contact form get triaged but rarely converted. The strongest path is a warm introduction — through your accelerator, a service partner, an existing IRAP recipient, or a direct outreach to a regional ITA with a clear technical narrative.
The published range is $50K to $10M, but the practical band for most first-time recipients is $100K–$500K, covering 60–80% of eligible salaries over 6–18 months. Larger projects require established relationships and demonstrated commercialization traction.
Yes, but the interaction matters. IRAP funding is treated as government assistance and reduces SR&ED-eligible expenditures dollar-for-dollar. The net stack still produces meaningful uplift, but the effective combined rate is lower than naïve addition. Structuring the two claims together avoids leaving money on the table.
Most projects are 6–18 months. Very large projects can run in multiple phases with checkpoint reviews. Extensions are possible but require ITA buy-in and often a project revision.
Weak commercialization story (technology-push with no clear customer), lack of technical differentiation (looks like standard practice), no matching investment from the company (IRAP is cost-share, not full funding), and mismatch between the team's demonstrated ability and the project's technical ambition.
Changes to the program tracked by our team.
IRAP CTAS cleantech stream capacity expanded following SDTC wind-down transition — more room for cleantech applicants than in 2024.
New IRAP AI-focused stream announced — dedicated capacity for AI/ML infrastructure and applied AI projects.
Combinations our team files together for meaningful uplift, with live deadlines.
Three concrete moves. Do them yourself or hand off to GovMoney.
Add this program to your watchlist and get personalized deadline alerts, plus every other Canadian program that matches your business.