🎓 Canada Federal Grant Awards Scraper

Scrape Canadian federal grant and contribution awards: recipient, department, program, amount and agreement date. Run it once and you get the current records as a dataset — that is the default. Turn on watch mode and a scheduled run returns only what changed since the last run (see Optional: run it on a schedule).

New federal grant and contribution awards as Canada discloses them - the recipient, the programme, the agreement value, the dates and the reporting quarter, keyed on the government's own reference number. Bounded by your filters: department, agreement type, recipient type, province, city, recipient or programme.

Output is one cafed_record row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one new-award delta (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per new-award delta plus one $0.10 source check per run that reads the source). Source: open.canada.ca, search.open.canada.ca.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

Who buys this

Buyers usually search for Canada grants or Canadian federal grants and contributions.

• Grant consultants and research-development offices tracking Canada grants.
• Universities, nonprofits and companies watching Canadian federal grants and contributions relevant to their field.
• Analysts and journalists following where public funding goes.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run I4y9pW06YvpnRhm4d on build 0.1.20 (2026-09-28), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

ref_number	reporting_fiscal_year	reporting_quarter	recipient_legal_name	recipient_city	agreement_title_en
GC-2018-2019-Q4-001	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Afghan Women Center	Montreal	Afghan Women Center : Strategic Planning & Development Towards the fut
GC-2018-2019-Q4-002	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Association chrétienne des jeunes femmes de Montréal	Montreal	Sustaining the YWCA
GC-2018-2019-Q4-003	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Association YWCA Québec	Québec	Implementation of a Practice Framework
GC-2018-2019-Q4-004	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Atikamekw sipi - Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw	La Tuque	You Are Just as Good as Your Partner, no More, no Less!
GC-2018-2019-Q4-005	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Bay St. George Status of Women Association Inc.	Stephenville	Becoming workplace leaders in the non-profit community
GC-2018-2019-Q4-006	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Be the Peace Institute	Mahone Bay	Charting Our Path
GC-2018-2019-Q4-007	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	Bridges for Women Society	Victoria	Building Bridges for Women's Economic Security and Prosperity
GC-2018-2019-Q4-008	2018-2019	2018-2019 Q4	CALACS francophone d'Ottawa	Ottawa	Leading the Way - Development and Implementation of a Knowledge Transf

The run finished with the status message: PARTIAL: emitted 25 item(s); PREVIEW: snapshot output is capped at 25 record(s); 1889 further record(s) withheld. Use watch mode for the full change feed.

✅ What you get

One row per record delivered by Canada Federal New Grant Award Watch; in watch mode a delta row carries delta_type, before, after and changed_fields. Field names come from the actor's real output; fields the source does not publish are null.

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_key (string/null) — e.g. cafed:GC-2018-2019-Q4-001|0
• ref_number (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. GC-2018-2019-Q4-001
• amendment_number (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. 0
• is_amendment (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. False
• amendment_date (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• reporting_fiscal_year (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. 2018-2019
• reporting_quarter_only (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. Q4
• reporting_quarter (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. 2018-2019 Q4
• agreement_type (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. G
• recipient_type (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• recipient_legal_name (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. Afghan Women Center
• recipient_operating_name (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• recipient_country (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. CA
• recipient_province (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. QC
• recipient_city (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. Montreal
• prog_name_en (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• prog_purpose_en (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• agreement_title_en (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. Afghan Women Center : Strategic Planning & Development Towards the future
• agreement_number (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. QC18961
• agreement_value (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. 218246.0
• agreement_start_date (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. 2019-03-20
• agreement_end_date (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• description_en (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. This 48-month project will address organizational capacity needs to allow the or
• owner_org (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. wage
• owner_org_title (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. Women and Gender Equality Canada | Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada
• source_url (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/432527ab-7aac-45b5-81d6-7597107a7013
• search_url (string/number/integer/boolean/null) — e.g. https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/?ref_number=GC-2018-2019-Q4-001
• record_type (string) — e.g. cafed_record
• delta_type (string/null) — null in every sample row
• before (object/array/string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• after (object/array/string/number/integer/boolean/null) — null in every sample row
• changed_fields (array/object/string/null) — null in every sample row
• observed_at (string/null) — null in every sample row

✅ What you get

✅ What you get

✅ What you get

• record_key (string/null) — e.g. cafed:GC-2018-2019-Q4-001|0
• ref_number — e.g. GC-2018-2019-Q4-001
• amendment_number — e.g. 0
• is_amendment — e.g. False
• amendment_date — null in every sample row
• reporting_fiscal_year — e.g. 2018-2019
• reporting_quarter_only — e.g. Q4
• reporting_quarter — e.g. 2018-2019 Q4
• agreement_type — e.g. G
• recipient_type — null in every sample row
• recipient_legal_name — e.g. Afghan Women Center
• recipient_operating_name — null in every sample row
• recipient_country — e.g. CA
• recipient_province — e.g. QC
• recipient_city — e.g. Montreal
• prog_name_en — null in every sample row
• prog_purpose_en — null in every sample row
• agreement_title_en — e.g. Afghan Women Center : Strategic Planning & Development Towards the future
• agreement_number — e.g. QC18961
• agreement_value — e.g. 218246.0
• agreement_start_date — e.g. 2019-03-20
• agreement_end_date — null in every sample row
• description_en — e.g. This 48-month project will address organizational capacity needs to allow the or
• owner_org — e.g. wage
• owner_org_title — e.g. Women and Gender Equality Canada | Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada
• source_url — e.g. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/432527ab-7aac-45b5-81d6-7597107a7013
• search_url — e.g. https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/?ref_number=GC-2018-2019-Q4-001
• record_type (string) — e.g. cafed_record
• delta_type (string/null) — null in every sample row

Every run also writes a RUN_RECEIPT record to its key-value store with the source checks it made and the counts it charged — diagnostics never land in the paid dataset.

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "owner_org": "wage",
  "watch_mode": false,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 1 × $0.10 source-check + 0 × $0.05 cafed-disclosure-delta = $0.12 on the Free tier — snapshot preview rows are delivered unbilled; only the source check and the start fee were charged.

2. Optional watch mode (changes only, for a schedule)

{
  "owner_org": "wage",
  "watch_mode": true,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The first run seeds a private baseline and emits zero deltas; every later run emits one row per change, billed at $0.05 each plus the $0.10 source check; billed deltas are capped at 500 per run.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run I4y9pW06YvpnRhm4d, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_key": "cafed:GC-2018-2019-Q4-001|0",
  "ref_number": "GC-2018-2019-Q4-001",
  "amendment_number": "0",
  "is_amendment": false,
  "amendment_date": null,
  "reporting_fiscal_year": "2018-2019",
  "reporting_quarter_only": "Q4",
  "reporting_quarter": "2018-2019 Q4",
  "agreement_type": "G",
  "recipient_type": null,
  "recipient_legal_name": "Afghan Women Center",
  "recipient_operating_name": null,
  "recipient_country": "CA",
  "recipient_province": "QC",
  "recipient_city": "Montreal",
  "prog_name_en": null,
  "prog_purpose_en": null,
  "agreement_title_en": "Afghan Women Center : Strategic Planning & Development Towards the future",
  "agreement_number": "QC18961",
  "agreement_value": "218246.0",
  "agreement_start_date": "2019-03-20",
  "agreement_end_date": null,
  "description_en": "This 48-month project will address organizational capacity needs to allow the organization to continue promoting social and systemic change towards gender equality. Organizational capacity will be enhanced through the following activities: ",
  "owner_org": "wage",
  "owner_org_title": "Women and Gender Equality Canada | Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada",
  "source_url": "https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/432527ab-7aac-45b5-81d6-7597107a7013",
  "search_url": "https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/?ref_number=GC-2018-2019-Q4-001",
  "record_type": "cafed_record",
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "output_mode": "preview",
  "preview_cap": 25,
  "preview_truncated": 1889
}

🔧 How it works

Source. The actor reads open.canada.ca, search.open.canada.ca — endpoints: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/api/3/action/datastore_search, https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/, https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/. Public pages and feeds only; nothing behind a login.

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Watch semantics. Snapshot mode (watch_mode: false) returns a preview capped at 25 records. Watch mode keys every record on a source-native id, stores a private baseline in a named key-value store, and on each later run emits one delta row per change (new / changed / removed). A blocked fetch is never diffed, so a source outage cannot show up as a mass removal.

Terminal states. A run ends NORMAL, CAPPED (your cap was reached), PARTIAL (something was withheld and the message says what), GENUINE_EMPTY (the source was read and truly had nothing in scope) or BLOCKED (the source refused or changed shape — the run FAILS loud and bills nothing). A zero-row run is never reported as a silent success.

Charging. Each new-award delta is charged at the moment it is pushed (cafed-disclosure-delta); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count. One source-check is charged per run that actually read the source.

🔧 How it works

🔧 How it works

🔧 How it works

Source

Proactive Disclosure - Grants and Contributions, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, published on open.canada.ca (public, logged-out, no key).

• https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/432527ab-7aac-45b5-81d6-7597107a7013

Declared update frequency: P3M - QUARTERLY. Measured 2026-07-28: 1,315,562 rows across the whole disclosure.

Run this MONTHLY, not daily

The source publishes quarterly and departments run behind that - one department's newest reported quarter was 2025-2026 Q4 while the calendar sat in FY2026-2027 Q2, a two-quarter lag. A daily run would charge a source check about ninety times to observe one publication event. Monthly is the cadence this source deserves and the one this listing recommends.

It reads an API, not the 2.29 GB file

The bulk CSV is 2,289,162,586 bytes. This Actor never downloads it. It reads the CKAN datastore endpoint, which is bounded, sortable and paginated.

The API offers exact-match filters only - no date range, no text search above 100,000 rows, no SQL. That is why the watch is bounded by who and what, not by when.

Your filters bound the watch, and the cap REFUSES rather than truncates

Supply at least one of: department, agreement type, recipient type, province, city, recipient legal name, programme name. With none, the run fails and says so - this Actor will not watch 1.3 million agreements.

One run watches at most 25,000 rows. Over that the run fails and names the number. It does not quietly watch a slice of your own filter, because a truncated window cannot tell a withdrawal from the cut-off and would report records sliding out of it as though the government had pulled them.

Name filters are case-sensitive

Measured at the source: recipient_legal_name="Carleton University" returns 232 rows and "carleton university" returns 0. Same organisation. So a name, city or programme filter that matches nothing fails the run and names the case, rather than reporting an empty source. An outage you can see beats an emptiness you cannot.

The arrival clock is inside the reference number

ref_number carries the fiscal quarter the award was reported in - 001-2022-2023-Q3-00019. Measured across 6,578 rows from two departments: 6,578 parsed a quarter, 0 did not. That is what gets parsed and signed.

The datastore _id is NOT an arrival clock and is never signed. The newest 500 rows by _id are all one department and span six fiscal years, because _id orders by when a department last re-uploaded its whole file. Signing it would report a routine republication as a flood of new awards.

The key

ref_number alone is not unique - measured on a full department read, 2,204 distinct reference numbers across 2,578 rows, because a number repeats across an agreement's amendments. The key is ref_number plus amendment_number, both carried verbatim from the source, nothing inferred and nothing hashed.

Snapshot mode is a PREVIEW

watch_mode: false returns at most 25 records, hard-capped in code, labelled output_mode: "preview". This Actor sells change detection, not bulk export.

Watch semantics

The first watch run stores a private baseline and emits zero deltas. Later runs emit a delta for each new row appearing in your filtered set. A department restating a figure is a correction, not a new award, and classifies as nothing; a row withdrawn from the disclosure likewise. Billed deltas are capped at 500 per run; the overflow is a named PARTIAL withholding, never billed, and re-detected on the next run.

One row class per Actor

This Actor emits original rows and nothing else. Its sibling reads the same source for the other class, each with its own baseline and its own price.

Terminal states

NORMAL - SUCCEEDED-0: GENUINE_EMPTY - SUCCEEDED-0 (no change) - PARTIAL - BLOCKED. A zero with no evidence FAILS loud rather than exiting 0 quietly, and a case-sensitive filter that matched nothing is never reported as an empty source.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

⏰ Optional: run it on a schedule

A single run returns the current records. If you also want to be told what changed over time, open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with input 3 above (watch_mode: true) so each run returns only the changes, and pick a cadence:

• Daily — 0 7 * * * (07:00 UTC): catch changes within a day.
• Weekly — 0 7 * * 1: a Monday digest.

The baseline persists in a named key-value store between runs, so every scheduled run compares against the last one; use a different baseline_id for independent watches. Schedules can also POST results to a webhook (Console → Integrations).

⏰ Optional: run it on a schedule

A single run returns the current records. If you also want to be told what changed over time, open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with the watch-mode input above (watch_mode: true) so each run returns only the changes, and pick a cadence:

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Source check (source-check)	$0.10	$0.09	$0.08	$0.067
New-award delta (cafed-disclosure-delta)	$0.05	$0.045	$0.04	$0.0335

Worked at the live Free-tier price (watch mode, one delta per change):

• 8 new-award deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 8 × $0.05 = $0.52
• 25 new-award deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 25 × $0.05 = $1.37
• 100 new-award deltas: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 100 × $0.05 = $5.12

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee plus the $0.10 source check (the source was read and reported empty). A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: PARTIAL: emitted 25 item(s); PREVIEW: snapshot output is capped at 25 record(s); 1889 further record(s) withheld. Use watch mode for the full change feed.. Snapshot output is capped at 25 records regardless of the cap you set; watch mode is the full feed.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by open.canada.ca, search.open.canada.ca. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (open.canada.ca, search.open.canada.ca) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input (in watch mode the first run always seeds the baseline and returns zero deltas); BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee plus one source check.

Q: What does watch mode remember between runs?
A: A private baseline of source-native record ids in a named key-value store (baseline_id names it, so several independent watches can coexist). Each later run diffs the live source against it and emits only changes.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs except the watch baseline. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other grant and research-funding scrapers actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers open.canada.ca, search.open.canada.ca. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.
• First watch run shows no deltas → expected: it seeds the baseline; changes appear from the second run.

🔗 Related Actors

• Canada Federal Grant Amendments Scraper — Scrape amendments to Canadian federal grants and contributions: recipient, program, original and amended amounts. Every run returns the current recor…
• EU Horizon Europe Grants Scraper (CORDIS) — Scrape EU Horizon and CORDIS grant awards: project, coordinator, participants, EU contribution and dates. Every run returns the current records as a…
• NIH RePORTER Grant Awards Scraper — Scrape NIH RePORTER grant awards: project, PI, organization, amount, mechanism and award changes. Every run returns the current records as a dataset.…
• US NSF Research Awards Scraper — Scrape US NSF research awards: PI, institution, program, amount, dates and funding changes. Every run returns the current records as a dataset. Optio…
• 🏢 About NexGen Watch — NexGen Watch is a catalog of more than 300 public data actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

⭐ Found this useful?

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