The CLL Fund Competition was established to catalyze living lab projects and foster new interdisciplinary collaborations. It provides seed funding to projects that pilot innovative approaches to sustainability, advance academic research and learning, improve campus operations, and have the potential to create broader societal impacts beyond UBC.

The competition creates opportunities for integrated academic-operational teams to address complex environmental, social, and economic challenges. It highlights projects that benefit the campus, while engaging regional and global partners to develop scalable solutions adaptable to diverse contexts.

Each UBC Campus runs an independent CLL Fund Competition open to faculty and staff at each respective campus. The UBC Vancouver CLL Competition launched in 2020 (see projects) and the UBC Okanagan CLL Competition launched in 2022 (see projects).

A two phase process

The CLL Fund Competition follows a structured two-phase application and evaluation process:

1. Notice of Intent (NOI):
   Interested teams must submit a mandatory NOI by the specified deadline. While non-competitive, the NOI is required to proceed to the full application phase.
    
2. Full Application:
   Teams that submit an NOI are invited to complete a full application. Applications must outline project objectives, innovations, research contributions, institutional benefits, and broader community impacts. Submissions are evaluated through a peer review process, followed by shortlisting and interviews with the CLL Steering Committee.

Key project requirements

Proposed CLL projects must embody the core principles of the Campus as a Living Lab approach and meet the following criteria:

• Innovation: Propose novel ideas or practices that address real-world sustainability challenges and drive change within and beyond UBC.
• Research Excellence: Demonstrate academic rigor through clear questions and sound methods, contributing new insights to knowledge and practice.
• Relevance to UBC Campus and Community: Align with UBC priorities and operations to deliver tangible campus and community benefits.
• Student Engagement and Learning Opportunities: Provide experiential, interdisciplinary learning that builds skills and enables meaningful student contributions.
• Potential Impacts and Knowledge Sharing: Scale, adapt, and share knowledge through partnerships and tools.

Each competition may have its own unique themes or focus areas, responding to the sustainability challenges, needs and opportunities on the UBC campuses. 

Funding and timeline

UBC Vancouver’s CLL Fund Competition now follows a biennial funding cycle. Following the completion of the 2025 competition (results here), the next intake will open in September 2027. 

More details about the UBC Vancouver CLL Fund Competition will be announced in the summer of 2027. Sign up for updates via our email newsletter.