Award Detail

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Award Details

Deadline

Rolling basis

Amount

Phase 1: Up to $20,000

Phase 2: Up to $50,000*

*In exceptional cases, requests for up to $100,000 or a second round of $50,000 may be considered.

Matching Funds

Minimum 50% of the VISTA award

Total Annual Funding

$300,000

Eligibility

Applicants

Core and Associate VISTA members

Project Length

  • Phase 1 – 4-6 months
  • Phase 2 – 6-12 months (possible extension to 18 months)

Use of funds

  • Phase 1 – Early stage prototype development (hardware or software) where experimental or technical data is still required.
  • Phase 2 – Full prototype development (hardware or software) of a product.
  • The funds can be paid as salary, material or fee for service.

Eligibility

  • Proof of concept is complete.
  • The technology must be disclosed to Innovation York @VISTA.
  • IP agreement with York University must be signed.

Proposal

Applications for Phase 1 and Phase 2 should include the following sections and be submitted to applyvista@yorku.ca

  • Title of the proposal
  • Description of the proposed project
    • Background invention, the state-of-the-art, and value proposition of your technology (200 words)
    • Work plan including technical objectives and technical risks (250 words)
    • Milestones
    • Budget and source of the matching fund (all expenditures must be CFREF eligible)
    • Relevance to VISTA (50 words)
  • Description of the technology transfer plan
    • Market overview, the opportunity, the advantage of the proposed product or technology, and the competition (250 words)
    • Commercialization strategy and proposed technology transfer activities (250 words)

Process

Requests can be submitted on a rolling basis. Phase 1 requests will be reviewed by the Associate Director, Commercialization & Industry Partnerships. Additional support in reviewing the application may be asked from Associate Director, VISTA and/or a member of the Commercialization Advisory Committee. Phase 2 requests will be reviewed by the Associate Director, VISTA, the Associate Director, Commercialization & Industry Partnerships and one member of the Commercialization Advisory Committee. Neither phase is dependent upon receiving funding from the other phase – for clarity:

  • researchers may apply for phase 2 directly if their technology is sufficiently developed
  • receipt of phase 1 funding does not guarantee that the project will receive funding under phase 2

The following are the criteria:

  • Scientific/engineering merit of the project (25 points)
  • Commercial potential of the technology (25 points)
  • Project plan, milestones and the budget (25 points)
  • Future plan for commercialization (15 points)
  • Relevance to VISTA mandate and the interdisciplinarity of the project (10 points).

Projects will be funded if they receive at least 75 points from two of the reviewers.

Reporting

Awardees must submit a final report no later than two months following the end of the project. The report must include the following:

  • Overall outcome of the project (200 words)
  • Milestones achieved; Milestones not achieved and the reasons
  • Use of fund
  • Next steps (100 words)