October 18, 2023 | Toronto, ON – INOVAIT, the pan-Canadian network for image-guided therapy (IGT), is now accepting applications to its Pilot Fund. The Pilot Fund is a reimbursement-based funding program to support collaborative research and development (R&D) projects in IGT that involve artificial intelligence technologies. Funding for this funding program was provided in part through the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).
The Pilot Fund aims to help initiate the most promising IGT projects to help improve patient outcomes and fuel economic development in Canada. This funding is designed for short-term (9–15 months) IGT commercialization-oriented R&D projects. Applying organizations can request between $100,000–$125,000 of non-dilutive investment, with INOVAIT contributing up to one-third of eligible supported costs in reimbursement funding.
“The possibilities offered by AI are infinite. That’s why the advances made by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Image Guided Therapies (IGTs) are invaluable to the patients and healthcare professionals who need it most. We are proud to support researchers and developers in pursuing more accurate diagnosis and treatment to improve health care for all Canadians.” – The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
The Pilot Fund will support industrial research, including activities related to the discovery of new knowledge that supports the development of new technology-driven products or services and large-scale technology demonstration. To date, the INOVAIT Pilot Fund has supported over 60 IGT projects by providing $7.2M for R&D projects across the country. Pilot Fund projects are selected based on their ability to demonstrate exceptional scientific, clinical, and technical merit, as well as enormous commercialization potential and economic impact.
“We are eager to see what Canadian image-guided therapy companies are developing and how we can best support the most promising technological ideas,” says Kullervo Hynynen, Co-Executive Director of INOVAIT and Vice President of Research and Innovation at Sunnybrook Research Institute. “By supporting the most compelling image-guided therapy projects, we are promoting a healthcare future that ensures Canadians will receive the best possible care.”
One-third of the contributions made by INOVAIT to a Pilot Fund project must be directed to Canadian-based Ultimate Recipients outside of Ontario.
To learn more about this funding opportunity, visit www.inovait.ca/funding.
Interested applicants can apply by registering with the INOVAIT Funding Portal at http://inovait.smartsimple.ca. Applications can be submitted through the portal between October 18, 2023 and December 20, 2023. Full applications must be submitted by 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on December 20, 2023.
An online information session will be hosted on November 15, 2023 at 2:30 pm Eastern Standard Time. Interested applicants are encouraged to register for this webinar to learn more about this unique funding opportunity. Registration for the webinar can be found here: https://bit.ly/2023-pilot-fund-webinar. The live webinar will be hosted in English only. A recording will be made available after the webinar with both English and French captioning at https://www.youtube.com/@INOVAITCanada.
About INOVAIT
Established in 2020, INOVAIT invests strategically in collaborative partnerships that build upon Canada’s strength in digital innovation and health science research to create a critical mass of world-leading Image-guided therapy (IGT) companies. Hosted by the Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, the network brings together small, medium-sized, and large companies, research organizations, post-secondary institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. INOVAIT aims to build a truly integrated IGT ecosystem by fuelling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally.
About Sunnybrook Research Institute
Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) is the research arm of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, an internationally recognized academic health sciences centre fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. With well-established programs in basic and applied sciences which span across three scientific platforms and ten clinical programs, SRI is developing innovations in care for the more than 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for annually.
