Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is seeking applications from across Canada for short-term, innovative projects that will help stimulate economic activity.

Under the Accelerated Ocean Solutions Program, the federally backed supercluster—which partners with private industry to fund research and development— will spend up to $35 million to back small-scale projects that can be brought to market in less than two years.

Based in Atlantic Canada, the Ocean Supercluster is a private-public partnership formed with the support of the federal government’s supercluster program. It’s expected to spend about $350 million on research projects over five years.

Applications should fall within the themes of remote operations, environmental technologies, or computer technologies.

Projects must also support the innovation ecosystem; involve product or service development; be aimed at expanding or improving existing oceans infrastructure; or look to improve industrial processes.

The first step for entrepreneurs interested in participating is to fill out an expression of interest form, found here, which is due May 22 at 2 pm AST.

“Projects must have a compelling strategy to capitalize on emerging opportunities and overcome challenges in the context of the current market and operational conditions, and deliver a definitive outcome in an accelerated timeframe,” said the Supercluster in a press release.

The government announced in 2018 that Atlantic Canada’s Ocean Supercluster was one of five projects that would split $950 million over five years to develop innovation “superclusters” across the country. They aim to foster economic growth by building centres of excellence.

In February, the supercluster unveiled a $6.8 million program to support the creation of more and better oceantech startups in Atlantic Canada. The supercluster now has an active pipeline of large-scale projects, but the crisis is seen as an opportunity to stimulate activity with smaller-scale projects that can be completed in less than two years.