i.d.e.a. Fund Cohort 4 Applications now open

i.d.e.a. Fund is a program that fosters inclusion, diversity, environment and acceleration while driving sustainable and circular economy growth, and is delivered in partnership with the following Ontario Regional Innovation Centres (RICs): Boundless Accelerator™, Innovate Niagara, Innovation Factory, Launch Lab, TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario, and WEtech Alliance.

This program will provide specialized industry expertise to develop growth plans and related strategies in areas such as talent attraction, raising follow-on investment, product development and quantification of product benefits/market value propositions, commercialization of intellectual property, and market diversification. Each RIC will distribute up to a maximum of $20,000 in matching seed funding to select innovative businesses in various sectors.

Applications for Cohort 4 of i.d.e.a. Fund will be open June 16 to July 7, 2025. Applicants will be informed on the outcome of their submission by July 31, 2025. Please note that previous i.d.e.a. Fund participants are not eligible to apply for future cohorts.

Steps to apply to the program are as follows:

Confirm your eligibility for the program by completing our short Eligibility Quiz. Click the green box labeled "CHECK ELIGIBILITY" to the right of your screen to begin the quiz. After confirming your eligibility, the green button to the right will say "APPLY." Click the button to access the application form. Once you click the application form, you will have the ability to add collaborators to the form to view and edit the application with you, or, just view your answers. Collaborators will be asked to register an SM Apply account when you invite them to the portal.The application form auto-saves every 10 seconds, but you can also click "SAVE AND CONTINUE" at the bottom of every page. You can exit the application and log out of SM Apply at any time and your progress will be saved. Once you've started the application form, every time you log into your SM Apply account, you'll be redirected to the form to continue. Once you've completed your application in full, be sure to review it before submitting. Applications cannot be edited after you hit "SUBMIT."

To see more details on this program, please see our guide here.

To see a copy of the intake form before beginning your application, please download it here.

To access our Business Model Canvas Guide, please download it here.

To access our OCR accessible version of the Business Model Canvas Guide, please download it here.

Your application will be graded based on several criteria. To download a copy of the rubric that we will use to score your application, click here.

For a sample of the types of Environmental Impact Indicators you may want to consider for your project, click here (note these are only samples and is not an exhaustive list of the types of environmental impacts your project may have).