NextGen Food Innovators

The NextGen Food Innovators Program aims to accelerate the pre-competitive development of promising technology into a new venture. Students who are currently or aspire to be entrepreneurs can apply to fund the further development and validation of their solutions, further substantiating the market opportunity for the innovation.

There are five awards available across Canada, one per CFIN’s regions: Atlantic (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador), Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut), and West (British Columbia, Yukon), as well as Ontario, and Quebec.

Eligible Applicants include individuals enrolled in a full-time program at a Canadian Accredited College or University in a diploma, advanced diploma, degree, graduate certificate, master’s, or PhD. Students at private institutions, junior colleges, and CEGEP programs are not eligible to apply. Applicants will need to provide a letter of endorsement or recommendation from their institution’s entrepreneurship office, or a professor or mentor.

The total eligible project costs should be between $5,000 to $10,000, and the maximum level of funding from CFIN will be 100% of total eligible project costs, or $10,000.

Applicants must outline their proposed solution, which must touch on food processing, food service, or grocery retail, and must be IP-driven, with new knowledge, science, or processes being developed and applied.

To qualify for funding, all projects must:

• Address an area of the post- farmgate food production supply chain – food processing, distribution, food service, or grocery retail. Projects that primarily focus on agricultural activities and mainly benefit farmers are not eligible;
• Identify activities that support the further development and validation of novel intellectual property;
• Identify a defined goal or outcome that has commercial application;
• Conduct research and development at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 7. Projects including TRL 8 and 9 components will only be considered if they are part of a project that also includes a TRL 1 to 7 (see 4.3 Technology Readiness Level Eligibility Requirements for further information); and,
• Projects must be completed by December 31, 2025.

The program has a two-phase application:

Applicants will prepare a video submission, no longer than seven (7) minutes presenting their project and touching on the below outlined areas of their innovation. Top scoring submissions will move to the next phase. Video applications are being accepted as of October 24, 2024, closing December 6, 2024.

1. Selected applicants from the video submissions will be invited to complete a full application on CFIN’s grant management portal. Invitations for this phase will go out the week of January 6, 2025, and applicants will have until February 6, 2025 to submit their full applications.
2. Successful applicants will be notified the week of March 3, 2025, and will have until December 31, 2025 to complete their projects.

All applicants must register for a free CFIN membership through www.cfin-rcia.ca.

Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.cfin-rcia.ca/programs/program-faqs