Neuro Commercialization Grants - Ignite

This program is currently inactive and not accepting new submissions.

Overview

Process

1. Meet with NeuroSphere staff and obtain invitation to apply

Applicants must meet with the NeuroSphere team to discuss their application to ensure eligibility for funding and alignment with HBHL goals.

2. Eligibility review

The NeuroSphere team will assess the eligibility of applications based on the following criteria:

Applicant eligibility:

• Applicant: The applicant must be a McGill researcher who is eligible to hold Tri-Agency research funding (students and postdoctoral researchers are not eligible).
• Co-applicants: Co-applicants must be researchers from McGill University or from one of our CFREF partner institutions (Western University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia or Montréal Polytechnique). Grant funding may NOT be transferred to co-applicants from other institutions.

Intellectual Property:

• A report of Invention (ROI) must have been filed with the Innovation and Partnerships Office at McGill (I+P). If a McGill-affiliated researcher decides to manage IP by him/herself, without I+P, he/she will not be eligible. Even if projects adhere to guiding principles of Open Science, a ROI must be filed.
• The technology must also not yet be licensed or optioned.

Application completeness:

For an application to be considered complete, it must include:

• Submitted online application form;
• Completed proposal;
• Completed budget form;
• Biosketches; and
• Attachment of an electronic certificate of completion (incl. name and date) from at least one of CIHR’s Online Training Modules on Integrating Sex and Gender in Health Research

3. Relevance Review

The NeuroSphere team will evaluate the relevance of applications based on the following criteria:

• Alignment: The project must be within the field of neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, mental health or neuroinformatics and align with HBHL's Strategic Research Plan.
• Allowable Costs: Funding must go towards direct support of technology maturation (i.e., personnel, materials and supplies). Business case and model evaluation and strategic planification could also be considered as allowable costs. Equipment is not an eligible expense. Other non-eligible expenses include market studies, patent searches or filling, maintenance costs, or salaries associated with commercial development. Although these activities are not eligible, I+P and NeuroSphere staff can provide assistance in these areas. Funds cannot be used for compensation/salary for principle investigators, co-investigators or collaborators.

4. Peer Review

Once the eligibility and relevance has been validated, a peer review committee will be formed to review the application based on the following criteria:

• Science
  • The innovation/technology is novel and address a health problem;
  • The innovation/technology is adequately described;
  • The applicant’s research activity and experience adequately support the innovation/technology;
  • Milestones are feasible within 6 months;
• Commercial potential
  • Maturation plan of the technology;
  • Maturation plan is feasible and realistic within proposed budget;
• Appropriateness of the proposed budget
• SGBA+
  • Appropriateness of the application’s integration of sex as a biological variable, gender as a socio-cultural determinant of health, and/or other relevant factors (e.g., race, age, Indigeneity, ability) or an evidence-based justification for not including these or other intersectional factors.
  • The historical omission of sex, gender and other identity factors from health research has resulted in a dearth of evidence about the effects of these factors. Therefore, a lack of evidence indicating the importance of these factors in the literature is not a sufficient justification on its own for omitting them in the proposed study.
  • SGBA+ will be reviewed separately by designated, knowledgeable reviewers for all applications. Applicants may be asked to revise this section prior to receiving funding if reviewers deem it inadequate.

5. Strategic Selection and Final Approval

The NeuroSphere staff will submit a pre-selection of the most promising, high-priority projects to the HBHL Innovation Committee for final approval. Final authorization of funds will be made by the HBHL Strategic Steering Committee.

6. Results and Post-Awards

• All applicants will be notified by email of the results of the competition by the end of January 2022.
• Successful applicants will be sent a Notice of Award. It is the applicant’s responsibility to complete the Acceptance of Award form and other required documents including the McGill Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) checklist, by the indicated date.
• Project start date must fall after the award has been approved.

7. Responsibilities of Successful Applicants

Successful Principal Investigators are required to:

• Spend all awarded funds within the granting period—no extensions will be permitted except in extremely extenuating circumstances;
• Provide a final report to HBHL within 30 days of the end of the granting period to retain access to all other HBHL funding programs; and
• Meet with the NeuroSphere business development team at the end of the granting period to discuss results and potential to apply to the Accelerate grant phase;
• Funded researchers, their collaborators and trainees are encouraged to attend educational, training and entrepreneurship events and or co-investigators and workshops offered by NeuroSphere.

Application

All applications must be submitted online through the Ignite grant application form as a single PDF document. Please use the templates provided below and upload all parts as a single PDF application package named as “Lastname_Firstname_Ignite.pdf”.