Transforming discoveries into real applications for patients can take years of development, refinement, validation, and testing. To help early-stage research progress, UHN Commercialization has established an in-house incubation model that includes funding to de-risk commercially promising technologies towards their inflection point. This is done through UHN's Accelerator Fund, which offers significant capital to help early-stage technologies advance. The fund is in place to help promising innovations from within UHN and our ecosystem reach patients faster. It acts to maximize their commercial potential, bringing them to market in the form of new medical products, devices or therapies.
Supported by the UHN Foundation and the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, the Accelerator Fund is split into two streams: the Innovation Accelerator, launched in March of 2024 and the Clinical Accelerator - expected to activate in the Fall of 2024.
The AF helps researchers and clinicians close funding gaps between research funding received from grant and government sources, and the significant private-sector investments needed to de-risk discoveries in order to bring new therapies and technologies to the people who need them. The AF supports projects from proof-of-concept right through to 1st in human testing.
The Innovation Accelerator has been established to overcome barriers to research translation. Its objective is to accelerate research discoveries at UHN to demonstrate commercial applicability to potential industry partners and/or investors.
A maximum contribution of $250,000 is available per proposal. Eligible researchers are currently those affiliated with any of UHN's research institutes. You can learn more here or by contacting us at: IAFinfo@uhn.ca.
Are you a researcher at UHN? Think your project can accelerate cutting edge medical research from bench to bedside? With the Innovation Accelerator, early stage research results with high commercialization potential can receive critical development funds to advance and potentially help patients world-wide.
Questions? Contact us at : IAFinfo@uhn.ca
