Eligibility

The 2025 UBC Vancouver CLL Fund Competition is open to faculty and staff with UBC Vancouver appointments. Each project must have two co-leads—one faculty and one staff—from different departments, disciplines or units, who will co-develop and co-direct the project.

Funding

The year's CLL Fund Competition will provide up to $500,000 in total seed funding. The funding is available through two streams: 

• Small Projects: $10,000–$30,000 per project 

• Large Projects: $50,000–$100,000 per project 

There is no fixed allocation between streams—funding will be awarded based on the quantity and quality of the proposals received.

Project Timelines

The official project timelines are March 15, 2026 through March 31, 2028. Project activities should be planned to complete prior to this deadline. Extensions beyond this deadline are not guaranteed.  

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.

The theme of the 2025 competition is “Campus as a Living Lab”—reflecting not only the name of our program, but also its core ambition: to facilitate collaboration between academic and operational partners in order to co-create and co-develop projects that use the university for innovation, learning, and transformative change. 

Applicants are encouraged to define and express their own vision of what their living lab project could be. While environmental, ecological, and technical approaches are supported, we also welcome bold, creative, and interdisciplinary interpretations that explore the social, cultural, procedural, and organizational dimensions of sustainability. The aim is to broaden how we think about “Campus as a Living Lab”—recognizing that meaningful change can emerge from many different directions and pathways. Examples of other living lab projects are available on the CLL website: livinglabs.ubc.ca/projects. 

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Successful projects will be grounded in real-world application, demonstrate interdisciplinary collaboration, and engage both academic researchers and operational staff. Proposals should clearly articulate how the project contributes to UBC’s strategic priorities—such as the UBC Strategic Plan and Strategic Directions, the Climate Action Plan 2030, or 20-year Sustainability Strategy—while offering pathways for institutional learning, policy advancement, and broader impact on and beyond campus. 

The Campus Living Lab Fund supports projects that bring together academic talents and operational expertise to co-create solutions grounded in research, real-world application, and institutional learning. A successful UBC Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) project embodies five core characteristics that define both what the project proposes to do and how it delivers meaningful impact:

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1. Innovation:
   Strong projects bring forward novel or significantly improved ideas, processes, or practices that address real-world sustainability challenges. Innovation can take many forms—technical, social, procedural, or cultural—and may include new ways of thinking, engaging, organizing, or acting. Projects should have the potential to spark meaningful change at UBC and generate inspiration beyond the university.

2. Research Excellence:
   Projects should demonstrate academic rigour and contribute new insights to a body of knowledge. This includes clear research questions, robust methodologies, and well-defined processes. Strong proposals will reflect excellence in academic scholarship and show potential to inform future research, policy, or practice across disciplines.

3. Relevance to UBC Campus and Community:
   Living Lab projects are rooted in the strategic context and operational realities of the university. They should directly align with UBC’s sustainability and climate action priorities—such as the Climate Action Plan 2030, the Climate Emergency Task Force Report, and other institutional policies or frameworks. Proposals should clearly identify what will be implemented or improved at UBC, why this change is needed, and how the outcomes will strengthen the university’s ability to lead and learn as a living lab. 

4. Student Engagement and Learning Opportunities:
   Student involvement is a defining feature of a Living Lab. Strong projects actively engage students through research, design, implementation, evaluation, or storytelling. They create opportunities for hands-on, interdisciplinary, and mentorship-based learning, enabling students to make meaningful contributions while gaining valuable skills and insights.

5. Potential Impacts and Knowledge Sharing:
   A strong project has the potential to extend its impact beyond UBC. This may include replicability, adaptability, or opportunities for scale-up in other institutional, municipal, or community contexts. Knowledge sharing should go beyond academic publication, through tools, frameworks, partnerships, or public-facing engagement. Projects should help build capacity for change across sectors and settings.

Within the context of the CLL Fund Competition, projects are also encouraged to pursue opportunities for:

• Regional partnerships with public, private, and community organizations.

• Collaboration and knowledge exchange on or off campus

• Leveraging the competition funding, and a growth pathway beyond the funded project scope.

Should you have any question about 2025 UBC Vancouver CLL Fund Competition, Please feel free to email CLL.team@ubc.ca

Eligibility

Budget and Finances

Project Approvals