Competition and Funding

To foster innovation and collaboration between different industry players, CQDM holds several annual competitions where all players in Quebec are invited to submit their research projects.

Currently, CQDM is offering 5 funding programs:

All our programs aim to develop tools or enabling technologies that could strongly impact the biopharmaceutical research. The annual competitions are opened to researchers in Québec from the public and private sectors.

The main caracteristics of Focus, Explore, Québec/France, Québec/Ontario and Québec/Massachusetts competitions are summarised in the table below:

	FOCUS	EXPLORE	Québec/France	Québec / Ontario	Québec / Massachusetts
Program Specifics
Scope	Develop innovative technologies or tools that have an immediate impact on the drug discovery/development process	Test unconventional and highly innovative ideas that could lead to advances in disruptive technologies	Strengthen biomedical research in Quebec, Alsace and Rhône-Alpes by the alignment of international resources	Strengthen biomedical research in Quebec and in Ontario by the alignment of resources and expertise	Stimulate and motivate strong collaborations between Quebec and Massachusetts-based life sciences companies by aligning their scientific and business objectives
Eligibility	Biotechnology companies, Contract Research Organizations, Academic laboratories, Hospital teams. Multinational pharmaceutical companies are not eligible.				Private SMEs
Format	Annual competitions
Type of Projects
Stage	Development projects	Early concept validation	Development projects	Development projects	Late stage R&D
Research team	Multidisciplinary	Single laboratories	Multidisciplinary	Multidisciplinary	Multidisciplinary
Public/private partnership	Encouraged	Not required	Required for Alsace and Lyon; encouraged for Quebec	Encouraged	Business to Business
Competition Specifics
Submission process	2 steps (LOI + full application)	2 steps (LOI + full application)	1 step (full application)	2 steps (LOI + full application)	2 steps
Duration of projects	Maximum 3 years	Maximum 2 years	Maximum 3 years	Maximum 3 years	Maximum 18 months
Total amount	$1,000,000 - $2,000,000	$150,000 - $300,000	$700,000 from the CQDM and €500,000 from Alsace BioValley and/or Lyonbiopôle	$200,000 to $375,000 from the CQDM and $200,000 to $375,000 from the Ontario partner	$100,000 to $500,000 from the CQDM and $100,000 to $500,000 from the Massachusetts partner
Mentorship program	3 mentors/project	At least 1 mentor/project	No mentor	At least 1 mentor/project	Tbd
Important dates	Call for proposals To be determined	Call for proposals December 20th, 2012	Call for proposals September 1st, 2012	Call for proposals June 18th, 2012
	Deadline for submission of the letters of intent To be determined	Deadline for submission of the letters of intent February 28th, 2013	Interest in the networking event October 1st, 2012	Deadline for submission of the letters of intent September 28th, 2012	Deadline for submission of Phase I applications September 16th, 2013
	Announcement of the selected letters of intent To be determined	Announcement of the selected letters of intent May 2nd, 2013	Networking event in LyonX November 15-16th, 2012	Announcement of the selected letters of intent November 2nd, 2012
	Deadline to submit full proposals To be determined	Deadline to submit full proposals July 2nd, 2013	Deadline to submit full proposals February 13th, 2013	Deadline to submit full proposals December 20th, 2012	Deadline for submission of Phase II applications (Massachusetts Company only) December 2nd, 2013
	Final selection announcement To be determined	Final selection announcementx September 24th, 2013	Final selection announcement May 1st , 2013	Final selection announcement March 12th, 2013	Final selection announcement March 2014
	Signature of the research agreement To be determined	Signature of the research agreement November 26th, 2013	Signature of the research agreement To be determined	Signature of the research agreement June 12th, 2013
	Funding release and beginning of the projects To be determined	Funding release and beginning of the projects December 3rd, 2013	Funding release and beginning of the projects To be determined	Funding release and beginning of the projects August 1st, 2013