Call for First-time Adopter Projects

The general objective of the Innovation program is to strengthen the innovation capacities of companies, primarily SMEs, at the different stages of their innovation projects.

The call for projects aims to support the needs of startups. Its objective is:

• to increase collaboration between startups and established companies in the research process aimed at developing innovative technologies;
• to make early investment in innovative technologies attractive;
• to expose Quebec companies more quickly to innovation introduced by startups ;
• to promote the adoption of technologies developed by startups .

Goals

This call for projects aims to:

• increasing collaboration between young innovative companies ( startups ) and established companies in the research process aimed at developing innovative technologies;
• make early investment in innovative technologies attractive;
• expose Quebec companies more quickly to innovation introduced by startups;
• promote the adoption of technologies developed by startups .

Eligibility

Eligible customers

The First-time Adopters measure is aimed at startups that wish to undertake innovation and research projects with established companies, potentially their first buyers.

Eligible startups are:

• are legally constituted according to the federal or Quebec laws in force and registered with the Quebec Enterprise Registrar;
• have their head office in Quebec and employees or subcontractors who work mainly in Quebec;
• carry out research and development primarily from Quebec;
• are in the pre-marketing phase and have not made significant sales;
• are supported by an organization that offers incubation or acceleration services located in Quebec at the time the application is submitted;
• are less than 50% owned by other companies or organizations;
• were not created as part of a concentration, restructuring, extension of pre-existing activities or a takeover of such activities;
• own the rights to use the intellectual property of their product or innovation;
• are led by a founder or a team of founders, at least one of whom devotes himself to it full-time (35 hours or more per week);
• have devoted the majority of their financial resources to the development of their business, from the design and development of their product or process to marketing.

Eligible companies are first-time adopters who:

• are legally constituted according to the federal or Quebec laws in force and registered with the Quebec Enterprise Registrar;
• are not in the pre-marketing phase, i.e. they must routinely sell products or services to customers;
• ultimately wish to acquire a product or process developed by a startup ;
• do not have any shareholders in the Quebec startup in question.

Eligible incubators and accelerators

The following are eligible support organizations:

• 2 Degrees
• DEL Accelerator
• ACET
• adMare Bioinnovations
• AG-BIO Center
• Balsam Impact
• CEIM
• Centech
• McGill Dobson Center for Entrepreneurship
• Clinical Innovation Platform (CLIP)
• Continuums (Garage & Co)
• Quebec Center for Innovation in Biotechnology (CQIB)
• Creative Destruction Laboratory (CDL)
• CTS Health
• Cycle Momentum
• District 3
• Digihub Shawinigan
• ULaval Entrepreneurship
• Space-inc
• Esplanade
• Fintech Cadence
• FounderFuel
• Group 3737
• The entrepreneurial base
• Propolys
• Indie Asylum
• INKUB Desjardins
• Gatineau Innovation Institute
• The Swimming Pool
• THE CAMP
• Millennium (University of Montreal)
• MT Lab
• TandemLaunch
• Next AI
• Quantino
• Zú
• Terro-X 
• IVEO

Eligible projects

Projects must:

• enable an innovative technology company to partner with an established early adopter company or organization to refine or finalize the development of its technology;
• include research and development activities carried out by agreement between the parties, in a test environment provided on-site by the first adopter;
• include a demonstration part in a real operating or usage situation.

The startup will have to ensure that it does not have an employment relationship with any of the project's partners or service providers.

The projects submitted must be supported by

Eligible expenses

The eligible expenses for the implementation of the project are as follows:

• salaries, wages and benefits;
• professional fees for specialized services, including subcontracted services;
• travel and accommodation expenses, in accordance with current government standards set out in the Compendium of Management Policies of the Government of Quebec;
• direct costs of materials and inventory;
• direct equipment costs, calculated as the proportion between the duration of the project and the useful life of the equipment;
• equipment rental costs;
• costs for preparing an intellectual property protection strategy for obtaining intellectual property protection or for acquiring intellectual property rights or licenses (those related to patent applications, such as patent agent fees) in the specific context of the first-time adopter project (licensing strategy, etc.);
• external testing and approval costs;
• costs for project verification and compliance with standards carried out by external auditors;
• costs related to certification activities;
• management costs by the support organization (5%).

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