Core Technology Leadership Program

Core Technology Leadership Program

Funds ocean-economy innovation consortia developing scaled energy, sustainable seafood, and ocean technology.

Canada's Ocean Supercluster (OSC) is an industry-led national cluster funded by the federal government through the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) supercluster initiative. The Core Technology Leadership Program is OSC's primary co-investment stream for technology development projects, accepting project prequalifications on a continuous intake basis throughout the year. OSC contributes up to 40 percent of eligible project costs, with the applicant consortium covering at least 60 percent. Additionally, all Technology Leadership Projects must allocate 12.75 percent of their total budget to innovation ecosystem building activity. The minimum total project value is CAD $1,000,000, placing the minimum OSC contribution at approximately CAD $400,000. All projects under this stream must conclude by October 2027, a hard backstop set by OSC's second federal mandate period.

Eligible project areas include Scaled Ocean Energy, Sustainable Seafood, Future of Ocean Transportation, Ocean Climate, Ocean AI, and other ocean-economy innovation verticals. Applicants must form a consortium — a single company cannot apply alone — and typically involve a combination of SMEs, universities, larger mature industry partners, regional innovation hubs, and Indigenous organisations. OSC's existing portfolio spans approximately 90 collaborative ocean projects ranging from under CAD $1 million to tens of millions of dollars. Across all streams, OSC engages independent experts to assess proposals and operates a formal Conflict of Interest policy. Full eligibility criteria and cost-category rules are defined in the Core Technology Guidelines (February 2024) and the OSC Cost Eligibility Guidelines (April 2025).

The process proceeds in six stages: prequalification submission, prequalification assessment, invitation to proposal phase, proposal submission, proposal assessment, and board ratification. Applicants begin by downloading the Project Preliminary Qualification form from the OSC website and submitting it for initial assessment before developing a full proposal. Given the October 2027 project-end backstop, consortia targeting this stream should initiate prequalification no later than mid-2026 to preserve sufficient time for proposal development, assessment, and a realistic project execution window.