The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has announced the successful recipients of its 2025 Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) Announcement of Opportunity (AO). The agency allocated $5.4 million across 15 grants to Canadian post-secondary institutions, with project slated to start this spring.
The FAST program is one of the CSA’s primary mechanisms for funding academic space and technology research. According to the agency, “The objective of the FAST AO is to support research projects in Canadian universities and post-secondary institutions that will contribute to the development of new scientific knowledge and space technologies, while giving students hands-on experience in space-like missions or in building a payload.”
The CSA allocates funding into three categories based on funding needs and platform requirements
Category A
Category A is for institutions that do not need access to a CSA-supported research platform and that require substantial expenditures from service providers. Projects in this category may last up to three years. Listed below are the projects awarded grants of up to $450,000.
| Institution | Grant value | Project | Principal investigator |
|---|---|---|---|
| McGill University, Quebec | $436,456 | Metal combustion technology for in-situ space resource utilization and orbital debris removal: Sounding rocket, parabolic flights and ground-based studies | Dr. Jeff Bergthorson |
| Carleton University, Ontario | $436,500 | Integrating drone and satellite short-wave infrared (SWIR) and thermal sensors for improved monitoring of peatland wetness and fire dynamics | Dr. Koreen Millard |
| University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan | $436,500 | An open-source radiation-tolerant microcontroller with advanced Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) technology for future space mission control and on-board data processing | Dr. Chen Li |
| York University, Ontario | $436,500 | Mars Atmospheric Gas Evolution – Flying Localization Investigation MAGE-FLI | Dr. John Moores |
| University of Waterloo, Ontario | $426,800 | Simulating Terrestrial Snow Mass Mission Measurements: Ku- and L-band Airborne Cryosphere-Observing synthetic aperture radar (CryoSAR) Observations of Seasonal Snow Water Equivalent in Forested Landscapes | Dr. Richard Kelly |
| Simon Fraser University, British Columbia | $436,296 | Advancing SWIR Hyperspectral Imaging for Next-Generation Satellite Sensors and Carbon Monitoring | Dr. Bing Lu |
| University of Toronto, Ontario | $436,500 | Bioprinting to Biopreservation: Suborbital Validation of INSITE and Cryo Cell Therapy Development | Dr. Axel Guenther |
Category B
Category B is for institutions that need need access to a CSA-supported research platform or that do not require substantial expenditures from service providers. Projects in this category may last up to three years. Listed below are the projects awarded grants of up to $300,000.
Institution Grant value Project Principal investigator McGill University,
Quebec$289,568 Precision radio cosmology from the Canadian high Arctic with MIST and ALBATROS Dr. Hsin Cynthia Chiang Queen’s University,
Ontario$291,000 The Second-Generation Balloon-borne Very Large Baseline Interferometry Experiment Dr. Laura Fissel University of Toronto,
Ontario$290,198 CARAT: Canadian Calibrator for Radio Telescopes Dr. Sean Hum York University,
Ontario$291,000 Pixelized, Flexible Sensing Network Using Laser-Induced Graphene for Health Monitoring Dr. Cuiying Jian York University,
Ontario$291,000 Food Production in Space: 3D-Printed Capillary Hydroponics with Multi-Ion Organic Electrochemical Transistor Sensing for Detecting Faults and Optimizing Growth Dr. Gerd Grau University of Guelph,
Ontario$291,000 Evaluating Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technology readiness in reduced pressure environments Dr. Thomas Graham York University,
Ontario$288,090 Molecularly Imprinted Opto-Fluidic Platform for Ultra-Sensitive Detection and Quantification of Biomarkers in Space Dr. Nima Tabatabaei McGill University,
Quebec$270,324 Space Simulation Chamber Testing of Laser-Thermal Propulsion as an Enabler of Human Spaceflight to Mars Dr. Andrew Higgin
Category C
Category C is for projects of up to $20,000 at the college/undergraduate level that support research through experiments on low-cost research platforms. Projects in this category could last up to two years.
The CSA states that no institutions were awarded a grant under this funding category. It did not state why this was the case.
FAST funding history (2017–2025)
An analysis of FAST funding cycles dating back to 2017 reveals an evolution in the CSA’s grant distribution strategy. The agency has moved away from a higher-volume, lower-yield model toward heavily capitalizing a smaller number of projects.
Funding Cycle Total Grants Awarded Total Funds Allocated Average Grant Value FAST 2017 31 $6.2 Million ~$200,000 FAST 2019 40 $7.7 Million ~$192,500 FAST 2021 22 $4.0 Million ~$181,000 FAST 2023 20 $7.4 Million ~$370,000 FAST 2025 15 $5.4 Million ~$356,500
(Data source: Canadian Space Agency program archives and Departmental Results)
In 2017, the CSA utilized a balanced three-tier system to fund 31 projects. By 2019, the agency shifted to a volume-based approach, lowering the highest funding cap ($400,000 to $300,000) to stretch a $7.7 million budget across a record 40 projects.
By 2023 and 2025, the CSA completely reversed this methodology. The agency lowered the total number of awarded projects to just 20 and 15, while raising the funding ceilings. The inflation of the secondary tier is notable: in 2019, a Category B grant was capped at $100,000. In 2025, Category B projects are eligible for up to $300,000—the exact same amount that a flagship Category A project received in 2019.
While funding ceilings have increased, inflation has impacted their real-world value. With cumulative inflation1 exceeding 20% since 2017, today’s $450,000 Category A cap offers roughly the same purchasing power as the $400,000 cap did eight years ago. The higher dollar limits are a necessary adjustment to keep pace with the increasing costs of aerospace hardware, services, and graduate stipends.
The re-introduction of the Category C tier—which previously offered up to $40,000 in 2021—and the subsequent lack of awards in 2025 also highlights a potential disconnect. The CSA’s attempt to build the grassroots pipeline of undergraduate researchers via micro-grants was unsuccessful this cycle, possibly due to institutions finding the current $20,000 cap too small to justify the administrative application process.
1 Inflation calculation based on Bank of Canada Consumer Price Index (CPI) cumulative data between 2017 and 2025.