Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund draft

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Expressions of Interest for the Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund will be accepted until October 16, 2024.

Project Eligibility

The Regulatory Experimentation Expense Fund (REEF) supports federal regulators in innovating or facilitating innovation in the marketplace by experimenting with:

• Innovative approaches to any stage of the regulatory lifecycle
• Market innovations (e.g., new products, business models, and services)

All stages of regulatory experimentation are supported, including:

• Determining if an experiment is the right approach
• Developing a regulatory experiment
• Conducting a regulatory experiment

New this year: Expressions of interest are now accepted for Impact Canada challenge prize, for challenges intended to inform regulatory development.

The REEF is open to all Government of Canada regulators. Priority given to collaborative experiments with regulated entities or businesses.

What can the REEF offer?

Regulators can receive:

Financial Support

• Up to $1,400,000 per fiscal year, with multi-year funding available, to cover expenditures considered necessary to support the purpose of the proposed regulatory experiment or pre-experiment
  • Funds transferred as operations and maintenance funds (O&M) on a cost recovery basis
  • The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat reserves the right to make the final determination on eligible expenditures

Note: Funds cannot be used to award a financial prize for an Impact Canada challenge prize. Prize awards require grants and contribution from the applicant.

Technical Support

• Expert advice and guidance to help navigate your specific regulatory context

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the REEF, proposed regulatory projects must meet the following criteria:

Regulatory Experimentation: The project must be about regulatory experimentation, either:

  a. Conducting a regulatory experiment, or

  b. Supporting pre-experimentation activities (developing an experiment or determining if experimentation is appropriate)

Problem or Opportunity: The project must address at least one of the following:

•   A defined industry need
•   A technological challenge
•   A market opportunity

Innovation: The project must support innovation in regulatory approaches or in the marketplace.

The REEF Process

	Step	Description
1.	Informal Consultation	Before submitting an EOI, consult with the CRI to confirm project eligibility. Email: cri-cir@tbs-sct.gc.ca Note: For challenge prize projects, please mention this in your email.
2.	Expression of Interest	Submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) EOIs should be brief and take only a few hours to complete Email submissions to: cri-cir@tbs-sct.gc.ca
3.	Proposal Submission	Successful EOI applicants invited to complete a full proposal Obtain support from Director General or above CRI supports throughout the process Use the Regulators' Experimentation Toolkit
4.	Proposal Assessment / Funding Decision	Interdepartmental Steering Committee assesses proposals and makes final funding decisions Assessment based on: Public Benefit: Extent to which Canadians will benefit from the experiment's learnings Viability: Likelihood of delivering sought learnings, including risk assessment and mitigation Value for Money: Assessment of total forecasted costs and internal resources Note: Other factors may be considered, such as ensuring a range of supported organizations or focus areas
5.	Memorandum of Understanding	Upon project approval: CRI works with the applicant to develop and finalize an MOU MOU outlines conditions of funding, reporting requirements, and committed funds Allows CRI to transfer funds as Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding on a cost-recovery basis
6.	Financials and Reporting	Per the MOU, regular reporting is required. This includes: Financial Forecast Progress Report Final Report Project department must submit invoices per schedule in the MOU to recover incurred expenses.
7.	Lessons Learned and Knowledge Sharing	Project leads are required to share learnings with the CRI through a final report CRI organizes opportunities to share and discuss learnings with interested audiences CRI prepares and publishes a report summarizing key lessons learned from regulatory experiments - CRI Supported Projects - wiki (gccollab.ca). We occasionally give presentations to various departments and agencies to raise awareness of our work. These presentations may include information on currently funded or previously funded projects. Before including any project details, we reach out to the project lead for content verification.

Application Documents

Document	Description
REEF Guide	Comprehensive guide to the REEF process
Regulators' Experimentation Toolkit	Toolkit for regulatory experiments and sandboxes
Expression of Interest (EOI) Template	Template for submitting your initial interest
Proposal Template	Template for full project proposal

REEF Ongoing Projects

Department/Agency	Project Title	Project Description
Transport Canada (TC)	Light Sport Aircraft	Transport Canada is conducting a regulatory experiment to assess the suitability of Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) for use in flight training. The project aims to evaluate LSA certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in Canadian flight training environments. Working with selected flight schools, Transport Canada will gather data on aircraft performance, reliability, and training quality. The experiment seeks to inform potential updates to regulations, potentially allowing more modern and environmentally friendly aircraft options for pilot training while maintaining safety standards.
Health Canada (HC)	Advanced Therapeutic Products Framework for CAR-T Products	Health Canada is developing a regulatory sandbox for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy products manufactured at the point of care. This experiment aims to test a co-creation process for developing tailored regulatory requirements under Health Canada's Advanced Therapeutic Products pathway. The project will involve collaboration with various stakeholders to design market access authorization requirements for these innovative cancer treatments. The goal is to create an adaptive regulatory framework that maintains safety standards while facilitating faster access to new therapies.
Canada Energy Regulator (CER)	Assessing Compliance of Potential New Requirements to Prevent and Address Impacts to Indigenous Rights and Interests: A Regulatory Experiment.	The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) is conducting a regulatory experiment to develop and test new requirements for preventing and addressing impacts to Indigenous rights and interests related to energy infrastructure projects. The experiment aims to enhance Indigenous involvement in compliance verification and oversight processes. Using a co-creation approach with Indigenous communities and other stakeholders, the CER will develop tailored regulatory requirements and test a joint compliance verification process. The project seeks to strengthen measures to protect Indigenous rights while informing updates to CER's regulatory framework.
View list of completed projects and experimentation reports