The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is accepting applications for its latest round of smartEarth funding, offering Canadian universities up to $3 million to develop new applications that put satellite data to work on climate, safety and resource questions.
smartEarth is the agency’s funding initiative for satellite Earth observation. This is the Enabler stream of its three funding tracks, the one built to grow capacity and expertise at Canadian institutions. The other two, Accelerator and Integrator, fund industry and federal government projects that deliver solutions more directly.
The agency expects to fund around 20 projects, with individual grants capped at $150,000 over up to three years.
Within the Enabler stream, this call itself splits into three parts: one for foundational research into new Earth-observation methods, a second that pairs academic teams with industry to put those methods to use, and a third reserved for projects that mine data from Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission, the trio of synthetic aperture radar satellites that already monitors ice and the environment, detects ships and supports emergency crews during floods and other disasters. Every project also has to address at least one of the call’s priorities, among them climate change, health and safety services, and training the next generation of Earth-observation researchers.
Only Canadian universities and other post-secondary institutions can apply, and each may submit one project. Proposals are due through by Oct. 30. The CSA stated it aims to respond within 17 weeks of the deadline, and successful projects are set to start in March 2027.
smartEarth dates back to 2020, when the agency awarded $4.2 million in contracts under an early call for satellite-data proposals, and has issued several rounds since, part of Ottawa’s broader push to get more use out of the data Canada’s own satellites already collect.