2025 CLL Fund Competition
2025 UBC Vancouver CLL Fund Competition
UBC’s Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) is a collaborative framework for researchers, students, staff and external partners to leverage the campus to explore, develop and test new ideas, and to share the knowledge gained from these experiences. CLL projects address urgent global sustainability challenges in our local context, in alignment with UBC's Strategic Plan: Creating vibrant, sustainable environments that enhance wellbeing and excellence for people...at UBC and beyond.
The CLL Fund Competition was established in 2020 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.
UBC's 2025 CLL Fund Competition will open in September, 2025.
A prelaunch info session will be held via Zoom at 10am on June 10, 2025.
Key dates
Prelaunch info session
June 10, 2025 - 10am PST
Competition opens
September 2025
Competition overview
THEME: Campus as a Living Lab – projects must demonstrate alignment with CLL principles and contribute to sustainability transformation at UBC.
Total Funding Available: $500,000
Funding Streams
- Small Projects: $10,000–$30,000 per project
- Large Projects: $50,000–$100,000 per project
Funding Allocation: No fixed distribution—awarded based on proposal quality.
Project Timeline: March 2026 – March 2028.
Who can apply
- UBC Vancouver tenure-track research faculty and permanent, full-time staff
- Projects must be co-developed by faculty and staff from different departments or units
A two-phase process
The CLL Fund Competition follows a structured two-phase application and evaluation process:
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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. -
Full Application: Teams that submit an NOI are invited to complete a full application.
Submissions are evaluated first through a peer review process, followed by shortlisting and interviews (large project stream only) with the CLL Steering Committee. Funding decisions are expected in February 2026.
Key project characteristics
Proposed CLL projects must address a significant sustainability challenge, be co-led by a UBC faculty and an operational staff member, and meet the following criteria:
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INNOVATION: Advancing excellence through new methods, approaches, and diverse, collaborative solutions
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RESEARCH EXCELLENCE: Contributing new insights to academic knowledge while demonstrating excellence in research
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UBC IMPLEMENTATION & IMPROVEMENT: Delivering sustainability benefits and functional improvements for UBC and its campus communities
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POTENTIAL IMPACTS & KNOWLEDGE SHARING: Building partnerships and creating pathways to extend the impact beyond UBC
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STUDENT LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES: Providing enriched, real-world learning experiences that build practical skills, systems thinking, and engagement with urgent sustainability challenges
Important information
The full competition guide, application forms, and intake portal will be available on this website in August 2025.
Stay tuned for further announcements and resources to help you prepare your application
