Sponsor
Department of National Defense/Canadian Armed Forces
Program
Innovation for Defense Excellence and Security (IDEaS)
For More Information
Please visit the program webpage.
A webinar will be announced soon.
Description
This Call for Proposal invites innovators to submit proposals in support of Canada’s defence and security related to the Challenge: Cognition and trust: Real-time dynamic calibration for human-autonomy teams.
This challenge aims specifically to support Canada’s NORAD Modernization Plan (Annex C: Canada’s NORAD Modernization Plan). Department of Defense (DND)/Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is seeking innovative solutions to independently assess and calibrate trust for autonomous systems to maintain technological sovereignty and enhance safety, resilience and collaborative performance.
In recent years, militaries have witnessed an increase in the integration of autonomous systems into defence and security operations. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled autonomous systems have the potential to enhance operational efficiency and reduce human risk for military personnel. However, the militarization of autonomous systems raises concerns with safety, reliability and the potential for operators to inappropriately trust, misuse or underuse AI that underpin autonomous systems to support mission execution, for command and control on demand, and robust military decision-making, especially in contested and congested environments against novel adversarial technologies.
The outcomes of this Challenge concentrate on areas that align with immediate priorities in Canada’s NORAD Modernization Plan that develop expertise and advance DND/CAF understanding of technologies that enable a safe, efficient and secure partnership between humans and autonomous systems. This can be achieved by establishing a dynamic trust management system (i.e., a real-time system that measures, maintains, repairs and calibrates trust) that maintains technological sovereignty and collaborative performance when working with fallible autonomous systems.
Areas of research may include, but are not limited to:
- Trust metrics (define and quantify);
- Explainable and assured autonomy; or
- Trust in human-autonomy teaming.
The benefit to Canada is the development of Canadian network of experts in academia and industry that support basic and applied research focused on independent methods for assessing and calibrating trust between humans, AI, and autonomous systems.
Annex A provides the full Challenge Statement defining the research areas to be addressed.
Eligibility
The Call for Proposal (CFP) is open exclusively to multidisciplinary teams of researchers. The primary affiliation of the Micro-net partners must be from at least three separate institutions and/or organizations.
Eligible Lead Applicant organizations or institutions are:
- Canadian university institutions chartered in Canada.
Eligible Partner organizations or institutions are:
- Canadian universities and educational institutions chartered in Canada;
- Canadian incorporated for-profit organizations;
- Canadian incorporated not-for-profit organizations; or
- Canadian provincial, territorial and municipal government organizations.
For this challenge, the micro-net should consider partnerships that include human factors/psychology experts and machine learning/engineering experts.
All organizations/institutions must possess the legal status necessary to enter into a funding agreement.
Federal departments, agencies, or crown corporations, and any person that is employed under one of these, are not eligible for funding or participation in micro-net activities. DND and federal departments will not provide government furnished property, including but not limited to access to facilities/equipment, information, and personnel other than the assigned Defense Advisor.
Funding Availability
Successful applicants will be required to enter into a non-repayable Contribution Agreement with DnD (“Canada”). The maximum contribution per Micro-net is $1 million. The duration for the provision of funding is up to March 31, 2028.
The total funding available under this Challenge is expected to be $4 million. DND reserves the right to not accept proposals or to increase or reduce the amount of available funding at its entire discretion.
Indirect Costs
25%
Project Duration
The duration for the provision of funding is up to March 31, 2028.
Deadlines
If College-level review is required, your College will communicate its earlier internal deadlines.
| Type | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Internal Deadline | Applicants to submit completed proposals and OR-5 form to research.services@uoguelph.ca. | |
External Deadline | Applicants have until 2:00 pm (eastern time), Wednesday, June 17, 2026, to submit their proposal. |
How to Apply
Read and ensure you understand the Applicant guide.
In order to submit your application, refer to instructions in the Applicant Guide: Proposal form and submission.
No submissions will be accepted that do not use a CPC Connect account provided by Canada Post Corporation (CPC).
Apply by submitting a completed proposal form available below. Applicants must submit a proposal before the closing deadline to be considered for participation in the challenge.
Full details of the challenge, including eligibility criteria and submission instructions, are available in:
- Innovation Network Applicant Guide
-
DND 4807 – Innovation Networks Proposal Form
- Please Note: To be able to fill and save this PDF form, you must first download it to your computer and open it with Adobe Reader© 10 (or a more recent version).