Funded through the Government of Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Regulation, the $50 million Tailings Technology Challenge will advance the development of new and improved technologies that make tailings and water treatment more effective and lower in cost, ensuring real-world application and deployment.

Successful applicants can receive up to $15 million per project, with a minimum funding request of $1 million. ERA’s contribution will be no more than 50 per cent of a project’s eligible expenses.

The application deadline is Wednesday, September 24 at 5 p.m. MDT (UTC-6h).

Click the links below for more details:

• Call for Expressions of Interest Guidelines
• Eligible Expense and Cost Instructions
• Privacy, Confidentiality, Data, and Security Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Expression of Interest Template
  • FPP Appendix B Template
  • FPP Appendix C Template (Please visit Grant Manager to access this file)

An informational webinar was held on Thursday, July 3, 2025, from 2 to 3 p.m. (MDT). Justin Riemer, ERA’s CEO, Christophe Owttrim, ERA’s Executive Director of Technology & Innovation, and Isabella Tarasco, ERA’s Technology Investment Lead, provided an overview of the funding opportunity, including scope and eligibility of the call, technology examples, the submission process, timelines for decisions, and more. Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions to help prepare an application.

ALIGNMENT WITH ALBERTA’S OIL SANDS MINE WATER STEERING COMMITTEE

Oil sands mine water and tailings remain one of Alberta’s most complex environmental challenges, with serious ecological and social implications. The Government of Alberta is committed to collaborating with industry, researchers, and Indigenous communities to develop long-term, practical solutions.

Alberta established the independent Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee last year to guide this effort. The Committee met regularly, reviewed the latest research, and engaged closely with Indigenous leaders, community members, and technical experts. The technology examples listed below align with the Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee’s initial recommendations focused largely on improving water use efficiency, developing new measurement standards, and better managing or even reducing water accumulation at mine sites. The Committee’s work continues, and more recommendations will be shared in the near future.

WHO SHOULD APPLY

This funding opportunity is open to oil sands operators and technology providers. Applications from operators must include confirmed senior leadership support to ensure the project moves forward if selected. Technology providers can apply, but they must have a confirmed site host and a commitment from an oil sands operator to provide access to tailings pond sites or samples at the time of submission.

PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships are strongly encouraged. Consortiums help attract and retain highly skilled workers, increase Alberta’s innovation capacity, engage local communities, and leverage complementary resources. Applicants are encouraged to partner with Alberta’s post-secondary and research institutions, Indigenous communities, co-operative organizations, and municipalities where they can. In particular, partnerships with local communities as well as Alberta’s post-secondary research institutions are critical to demonstrate the completeness and pathway to deployment for solutions in this area.

ELIGIBLE TECHNOLOGIES

This Call for Proposals is not technology prescriptive. The following list provides a non-exhaustive set of examples of solutions that ERA believes may align well with this Call’s targeted outcomes:

• Tailings dewatering and volume reduction
  • Novel centrifuge and filtration systems
  • Flocculation and coagulant additives
  • Advanced evaporation techniques
  • Low-energy or passive tailings treatment
  • Extraction of additional bitumen and/or value-added materials from tailings streams
  • Management and conversion of air pollutant releases (including GHGs) from tailings ponds
  • Upstream technology solutions that reduce the volume of tailings production from oil sands mining activities, e.g. solutions that produce dry stackable tailings or that have a reduced water footprint
• Water treatment technologies
  • Novel filtration/separation/membrane technologies
  • Advanced oxidation and electrochemical treatment
  • Solutions that enable water recovery or re-use in oil sands processes
  • Wetlands and other nature-based solutions for passive treatment
  • Novel treatment and permanent disposal solutions for water treatment byproducts and non-releasable waste streams
  • Bioaugmentation and similar approaches to treat contaminants such as naphthenic acids
• Mine site remediation and reclamation
  • Phytoremediation, mycoremediation, and similar
  • Advanced techniques for soil and land remediation
  • Nature-based solutions for remediation and accelerated re-naturalization
• Enabling solutions for tailings and water management
  • Solutions for quantification, monitoring, and measurement of emissions from tailings ponds
  • High volume continuous monitoring of water quality
  • Biomarkers and other approaches to track, measure, and optimize reclamation progress
  • Shared infrastructure for testing of tailings and/or water management technologies

This Call is seeking transformative opportunities to materially manage and remediate tailings and mine water in Alberta. All proposed solutions must focus on tailings and/or water management and must demonstrate a clear line of sight towards realized benefits through the project.

In the spirit of complete solutions, proponents may elect to submit a single proposal featuring multiple individual technologies that all contribute to targeted outcomes for tailings and water.

Applicants are encouraged to contact ERA’s Applications team to discuss the alignment of their technology or technologies.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT STAGE

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are invited for projects that will advance technologies to the stages of field pilot, demonstration, or first-of-kind commercial implementation by project completion, as described below:

• Field Test/Pilot: At this stage, the solution is ready to be field tested in an operational environment. Projects in this category include the scale-up of prototypes to representative pilot scale and subsequent in-field testing of pilot units.
• Demonstration: At this stage of development, the technology or innovation is approaching the final commercial product, and representative systems have been built. Projects in this category include demonstration of near- or full-commercial-scale systems in an operational environment.
• First-of-Kind Implementation: At this stage, the technology is ready for first-of-kind commercial deployment. Projects in this category involve the design, construction, and operation of the technology in its final commercial form, with the intent to operate the technology for its full commercial life.

APPROVAL PROCESS

Submissions will be selected through ERA’s competitive review process. A team of experts in science, engineering, business development, commercialization, financing, and GHG quantification will conduct an independent, rigorous, transparent review overseen by a Fairness Monitor.

TIMELINE

• June 17, 2025: competition launch
• September 24, 2025: application deadline/adjudication begins
• October 2025: shortlist notifications
• December 2025: shortlist presentations
• January 2026: funding notifications

ABOUT ERA

For 16 years, ERA has invested revenues from the carbon price paid by large emitters to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative clean technology solutions. Since its establishment in 2009, ERA has committed $970 million toward 306 projects valued at over $7.3 billion, which are helping to reduce emissions, create competitive industries, and lead to new business opportunities in Alberta. These projects are estimated to deliver cumulative reductions of 34 million tonnes of CO₂e by 2030 and 95 million tonnes of CO₂e by 2050.

ABOUT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION (TIER) FUNDING

The TIER Regulation is at the core of emissions management in Alberta. The TIER system implements Alberta’s industrial carbon pricing and emissions trading system. TIER helps industrial facilities find innovative ways to reduce emissions and invest in clean technology to stay competitive and save money.