The Digital Citizen Contribution Program supports the priorities of the Digital Citizen Initiative by providing time-limited financial assistance for research and citizen-focused activities. The Program aims to support democracy and social inclusion in Canada by enhancing and/or supporting efforts to counter online disinformation and other online harms and threats.
Call priorities
This call for proposals is seeking citizen-focused activities projects, research projects, or projects combining elements of both project types. Eligible projects must meet at least 1 of the following priorities:
- Projects that seek to understand and develop resources to address the spread of disinformation among diasporic, Indigenous communities or non-official language communities, with special consideration given to projects that are led by or work in partnership with organizations in those communities; or
- Projects that engage High School, College or University students, as part of their course or program requirements, in fact-checking activities to support the work of Canadian media organizations, including diaspora community media and reputable independent media, in pre-bunking and de-bunking disinformation; or
- Projects that develop a framework or model to estimate the economic cost of online disinformation to the Canadian economy; or
- Projects which develop interventions to engage, learn from, and share information with Canadian influencers and content creators on the topics of civic and digital media literacy; or
- Projects that analyze recent trends in Canada’s information ecosystem and/or develop interventions to address them, potentially including the impact of changes to fact-checking systems on social media platforms, the spread of Artificial Intelligence/machine -generated content and tools (such as deepfakes), and / or the role of influencers on Canadian political discourse.
Under this call for proposals, the Program is offering successful recipients up to $380,000 per approved project.
Projects can start as early as August 22, 2025, and must start no later than November 1, 2025. Additionally, all funds received from this call for proposals must be spent by July 31, 2026.
The application deadline and details on how to apply can be found below.
Who can apply
The following organizations are eligible for funding:
- a national, provincial, territorial, municipal, Indigenous, community or professional organization, society or association which has voluntarily associated itself for a not-for-profit purpose, and which has the mandate to represent its membership or community
- a not-for-profit organization, including non-governmental or umbrella organizations, non-profit corporations, community groups, regulatory bodies or apprenticeship authorities, or associations serving the private sector
- a university or educational institution
- an individual researcher, acting in his or her personal capacity
- a research institution with an established record in relevant field(s), intending to undertake work in a Canadian context
- a for-profit Canadian and Canadian-owned institution with a record of developing and delivering programming, and performing research or related activities relevant to the goals of Canadian Heritage’s Digital Citizen Initiative, provided that the nature and the intent of the activity is non-commercial
Federal institutions, including any department, branch, office, board, agency, commission, corporation or other entity that receives an annual appropriation from Parliament, are not eligible for funding under the Program.
Application deadline
2025-2026 intake deadline
The deadline to submit an application for this call for proposals is August 22, 2025 (by 4:00 pm EST).
How to apply
- Contact the Digital Citizen Contribution Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage to request an application package, including the application guidelines and the general application form
- Read the application guidelines in their entirety before completing your application
- Submit your completed application by email to icn-dci@pch.gc.ca
- You must meet all the eligibility requirements and submit a complete application package to be considered for funding. A complete application package includes all of the following documentation:
- a signed and completed General Application Form
- a balanced (no surplus or deficit) itemized budget for the life cycle of the project, disclosing all revenues from all sources (confirmed and potential), including in-kind support, as well as all expected expenses of the project
- a project workplan which defines the activities the project will undertake to achieve its anticipated outcomes
- the sub-components of the Application Form
- a Direct Deposit Form (if you have not yet completed one)
- the Unincorporated Applicant Acceptance of Responsibility Form (only in the case of an unincorporated group)
- proof of legal status and signing authority, which can include letters patent, incorporation documents
- most recent financial statements (annual audited statements if available)