The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF) supports the development and deployment of clean energy and transportation infrastructure that is necessary to enable the development and expansion of critical minerals projects in Canada. The CMIF Indigenous Grants stream was established to provide Indigenous groups impacted by these critical minerals infrastructure projects with the resources necessary to actively engage on, participate in and benefit from critical minerals development.
Natural Resources Canada has increased the maximum CMIF Indigenous Grants funding amounts available to organizations relative to the first call for proposals under this program. This will allow organizations to undertake initiatives of greater scale. Please see the Available funding section for further information on maximum amounts.
This call will prioritize applications based on specified criteria as opposed to using the first-come, first-assessed, first-funded approach leveraged under the first call. Please see the Application assessment section for further information on criteria that will be considered.
Eligibility
Applicants who are eligible under the CMIF Indigenous Grants must be either:
- an Indigenous organization (for example, Indigenous community, Indigenous government, tribal council, national or regional Indigenous organization, or an Indigenous for-profit or not-for-profit organization)
- a non-Indigenous organization that is working with or on behalf of an Indigenous partner (for example, academic or research institutions, not-for-profit groups, and provincial, territorial or municipal governments and their departments and agencies)
Non-Indigenous organizations will be asked to include a letter of endorsement signed by the leadership of the Indigenous partner organization, confirming they are working with or on behalf of that Indigenous partner.
The 2025 call for proposals will provide up to $3 million in grant funding for eligible initiatives. The maximum funding available per organization ranges from $150,000 to $200,000, depending on the location of the applicant or Indigenous partner organization.
