CALQ makes its pandemic research funding permanent on 10 November, and cuts Programmation spécifique to two application dates a year
On 23 September CALQ announced changes to two of its programmes for organisations. The first is a merger. From 10 November 2026 the Production et reprise programme takes in the research support that has been running separately as the Recherche, création et préproduction call, and is renamed Recherche, production et reprise. That date comes from the programme page itself, in a notice marked as modified 23 September 2026.
The call being absorbed was an emergency measure. CALQ's own FAQ says it was a mesure ponctuelle put in place during the pandemic to soften its effects on the artistic sector, that it gradually established itself as an important stage in developing projects, and that folding it in makes the support permanent. Research can still be applied for on its own, and CALQ says the research budget is not being reduced.
Two smaller changes come with it. Work that never reaches a stage becomes eligible, with digital creation, podcasts, videodance and recordings named. And a company can put a research project and a production project for the same work into one application instead of two.
The second change is a different programme, and the two should not be run together. Programmation spécifique, which funds a programme of activities over a period the organisation chooses, moves to two registration windows a year, mid-March and mid-September, the first on 16 March 2027. Its own page still says applications are accepted at any time, and still promises deposit at whatever moment suits the organisation. CALQ says the detail is being added in the coming days.
Both programmes name arts du cirque as an eligible discipline, and CALQ defines it as work showing mastery of one or more circus techniques recognised by the professional circus schools. Both are for organisations only: a non-profit with its head office in Québec and a board made up mostly of Canadian citizens or permanent residents ordinarily resident in Québec. A grant covers at most 75 percent of the cost, and neither page publishes a dollar ceiling.
For a circus company applying to Production et reprise, the weighting is 60 percent artistic quality, 20 percent impact and 20 percent management, with the option to ask for 50, 30 and 20 when the project justifies it. Two of the management criteria are what the company pays its artists, performers and cultural workers, and what it does about its environmental footprint. A decision takes about four months, and the file has to be in at least three months before the project starts, rehearsals counted as part of it.
The near date is 1 December 2026. A form created before the switch can still be submitted until then, and it gets judged on the rules in force when it was created. The announcement exists in French only. Its English URL serves the same French text.