GrantData Chat: Natural-Language Federal Grant Search

GrantData Chat is a natural-language interface to the GrantData database. Type a question; the tool runs the appropriate query against live grant records and returns matched grants or aggregated statistics. There is no general-knowledge component: every answer comes from a live database query at the time you ask.

Supported queries

The tool has four database functions:

Function	Use for
search_grants	Finding individual grant records. Full-text search across recipient names, program names, and descriptions. Filters: department, province, entity type (grant / research_grant / infrastructure_project), minimum value.
get_top_recipients	Organizations with the highest total grant value, optionally scoped to a department, program, or province.
get_program_stats	Aggregate totals by department or program, ordered by total spend. Useful for mapping where money flows within a department.
get_department_trend	Year-over-year disbursements for a specific department. Returns a timeline chart in the UI.

Example questions that work well:

• Who are the top recipients of ESDC grants in the last five years?
• Top NSERC grant recipients in British Columbia over $500,000.
• How has ESDC grant spending changed year over year since 2015?
• Largest infrastructure contribution agreements in Quebec in the last three years.
• Which programs account for most of ISED's grant budget?

Coverage

The database covers three entity types:

• grant — discretionary grants and contributions from Treasury Board proactive disclosure (140+ departments, 2004–present)
• research_grant — NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC awards (tri-council open databases, mid-1990s–present)
• infrastructure_project — Infrastructure Canada contribution agreements and Investing in Canada Plan projects

The chat queries records from 2000 onward. For older tri-council records, use the API directly. Provincial grants are not in the database.

Refresh schedule: departmental grants (weekly), Infrastructure Canada (monthly), tri-council (annual release cycle).

Limitations

• Provincial grant programs are not covered
• The tool shows historical disbursements, not open calls for applications — use Grant Radar for active opportunities
• Cross-department aggregations for a single recipient work through the get_top_recipients function; very complex multi-join queries need the API
• Proactive disclosure data may have publication lags of up to 6 months for the most recent fiscal quarter

API access

For programmatic access or bulk queries, use the REST API via RapidAPI. The full OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec is at grantdata.ca/openapi.json.

Free tier: 25 requests/day. Pro: 1,000 requests/day at $49/month.