January Funding Bulletin
JANUARY 2021
INNOVATION FUNDING BULLETIN!
Hello Everyone - The Best in 2021!
INNOVATON FUNDING UPDATES & NEW FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Canada Summer Jobs Program has opened and will be open for applications until January 31, 2021.
Alberta’s ReLaunch Grant has been recently increased by $15,000 adding up to a total of $20,000.
Alberta’s Innovation Employment Grant will be open for applications in January. This program encourages economic growth by supporting small and medium-sized businesses that invest in research and development (R&D) with a grant up to 20% of qualifying expenditures.
Alberta Innovates’ TIER Economic Recovery Program is closed but as per AI’s website “Should funds continue to be available after review of the first cohort is complete, we will open the portal to accept new applications. This decision will likely be made in January 2021.”
ERA’s $150M Shovel Ready Challenge attracted 281 submissions with a combined value of $2.2B. Short listed companies will be notified in February to submit a full project proposal by March, 2021 with oral presentations in May.
TECTERRA PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN REOPENED - the next deadline is coming up quickly - call to discuss.
A CFP from the Offshore Emissions Reduction Fund is open until January 29, 2021.
The NGIF has launched a $3M Natural Gas production challenge - the deadline for submission is February 2nd, 2021.
WD’s Business Scale-up and Productivity CFP has been postponed and will open March 15th, 2021.
Natural Products Canada’s Proof of Concept Program - Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis and can be completed online.
Lastly, it’s important that your company develops an understanding of the 1) Alberta and Federal Mega Funding Programs - the Alberta Recovery Plan, the Infrastructure Banks $10B Growth Plan and all, and, 3) the Federal and Alberta Employment/Training Funding Programs.
Call to discuss any one of these funding programs as per your 2021 plans.
The Overviews!
The Overview of the 130! Federal and Alberta Innovation Funding Programs, and, the Overview of the 30! Employment & Training Programs provide all of the updates on funding programs as listed above. Both Overviews are available as subscriptions on a one time basis, or, for 3 months with ongoing funding updates, or, for 6 months with ongoing funding updates. Innovation funding information can be found on the internet but why work so hard to do the research yourself when this information can be quickly and easily found in the Overviews? (For those of you on a budget, subscription fees as well as consulting fees are negotiated.)
The Reality of Preparing a Funding Submission For the First Time
When most of us write, we write to direct, inform, explain, encourage and/or persuade. When it comes to preparing innovation funding submissions another level of precision and persuasion is required.
No matter your technical expertise or how stunning the innovation, without aggressive editing, a reviewer can become lost in a rainforest of words and words and words. If the funding submission is hard to read and hard to understand - it’s easy for the reviewer to lose interest and move on to something else. If submission questions are not directly addressed, there’s a problem. Don’t let any of this happen!
To prepare a competitive and impactful funding submission means taking time to write to not only ensure each question is answered clearly and concisely but that the submission is easy to read and understand, enjoyable, interesting and impactful.
Good writing involves 1) writing at least 3 draft submissions prior to portal submission, and, 2) aggressive editing. For bigger funding submissions, literally, hundreds of tiny edits may be required to ensure that the submission is professionally prepared, and, that it is interesting, and, easy to read and understand. Also, each question needs to be directly addressed, so that the reviewer doesn’t have to read between the lines to figure it out. Don’t let this happen either!
STI's third party critical reviews are done from the reviewer’s point of view. This ensures that 1) your company’s funding submission and your company’s supporting documents succinctly provide all the information required by the funder, and, 2) is packaged as per the funder's key requirements, and, 3) has compelling positioning strategies - thereby making your submission highly competitive. Call for assistance as you may require!
Alberta’s Clean Tech Summit - March 11, 2021
The AB Cleantech Investment Summit is dedicated to improving access to early-stage capital for cleantech companies by increasing the pool of professional early-stage investors, educating cleantech entrepreneurs and facilitating lasting relationships between both parties. ACTia, FORESIGHT, START UP TNT and ENERGY FUTURES LAB are working together to launch this inaugural event. www.abcleantechsummit.ca Sign up to invest, pitch and/or sponsor. $100,000 in seed funding will be raised for a local cleantech company.
Propel’s ‘Fuel the Future’ - June 16th to 17, 2021
Register soon to get a discount for this prestigious event!
Inspirational, Historical, Incredible and Sweet!
Check out Sir John A. Macdonald Day: Premier Kenny
(https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=76033780B5C5D-F2E7-8FE4-A834E4751BA7A68C)
About Hope:
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.
Baruch de Spinoza
Be back to you all sometime between mid-February beginning of March!
A Safe, Happy and Prosperous January & February!
Eileen Ashmore, MBA, CMC Management Consultant - Technology Funding Specialist
403 252 0799 eileenashmore@strategictimelines.com