Ontario Invests in Made-in-Ontario Innovators

August 03, 2021

TORONTO — The Ontario government is investing $330,000 through the Ontario Together Fund to support the delivery of the Ontario Centre of Innovation’s (OCI) Ontario Innovation Showcase. The showcase will provide up to 18 companies that made submissions to the Ontario Together portal with the opportunity to participate in a competition for six $50,000 grants. It will also provide an opportunity for up to 26 companies that made submissions to the portal to participate in a virtual reverse trade show.

Innovative projects like OCI’s Ontario Innovation Showcase are why Ontario has invested an additional $50 million in the renewed Ontario Together Fund in 2021–22. The fund will continue to support local innovators and businesses to further enhance Ontario’s domestic supply chain capacity, promote Ontario’s MedTech ecosystem and build up our manufacturing sector to ensure the province is well-prepared for future challenges.

The renewed Ontario Together Fund is focused on supporting homegrown manufacturing and innovation to combat COVID-19 and providing other goods critical to the health, safety, and security of Ontarians beyond this pandemic. It is doing so under the following strategic pillars:

• Strengthening Ontario’s domestic manufacturing capacity
• Supporting homegrown technologies and innovative solutions
• Strengthening Ontario’s MedTech ecosystem.

“Through the Ontario Together Fund, our government is making laser-focused investments in domestic businesses with the ideas and solutions to help us through this pandemic and put us on the road to economic recovery,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “OCI’s Ontario Innovation Showcase will help more homegrown companies invest in projects that will enhance our resiliency while strengthening our economy.”

OCI is a not-for-profit organization committed to accelerating innovation by supporting collaborative research and development between industry and academic institutions and helping companies bring new technologies to market to drive economic growth. The grants administered by OCI as part of the Ontario Innovation Showcase will help companies formalize feasibility studies to validate the competitiveness and commercial opportunity in Ontario. This, in turn, will help these companies to provide necessary goods, services, and solutions to fight COVID-19.

“While the pandemic has posed great challenges to businesses and the economy at large, it has also been a strong driver of innovation as Ontario’s innovators respond with new solutions and next-generation technologies to support Ontario’s economic recovery and future resilience,” said Dr. Claudia Krywiak, President and CEO of OCI. “The Innovation Showcase will highlight the importance of promoting the adoption of these made-in-Ontario solutions with early adopters and first customers across the public and private sectors, ensuring greater visibility to support their expansion both here and abroad.”

Healthy people are essential for a healthy economy. With vaccine distribution continuing to increase, hope is on the horizon. Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy provides the resources necessary to finish the battle with COVID-19, building on the government’s record investments to protect health and jobs during the global pandemic.

QUICK FACTS

• OCI has supported projects in more than 180 communities across Ontario and is committed to supporting high-potential companies to help drive post–COVID-19 economic recovery.
  
  
• Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy brings total investments to $16.3 billion to protect people’s health and $23.3 billion to protect our economy. Ontario’s COVID-19 action plan support now totals $51 billion. 

• Businesses and organizations looking to apply to the extended Ontario Together Fund can now submit through the Ontario Together portal or Available Funding Opportunities from the Ontario Government .

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• 2021 Budget – Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy

• See how your organization can help fight COVID-19

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MEDIA CONTACTS  

Robert Gibson
Minister Fedeli’s Office Robert.M.Gibson@ontario.ca

Stephen Chiang
Communications Branch Stephen.Chiang@ontario.ca,, 647-409-6370