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 3 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 and CQDM/Alsace BioValley competitions are summarised in the table below:
| FOCUS | EXPLORE | CQDM/ALSACE BIOVALLEY | |
| 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 and Alsace by establishing collaborative projects |
| Eligibility | Biotechnology companies, Contract Research Organizations, Academic laboratories, Hospital teams. Multinational pharmaceutical companies are not eligible. | ||
| Format | Annual competitions | ||
| Type of Projects | |||
| Stage | Development projects | Early concept validation | Development projects |
| Research team | Multidisciplinary | Single laboratories | Multidisciplinary |
| Public/private partnership | Encouraged | Not required | Required for Alsace; encouraged for Quebec |
| Competition Specifics | |||
| Submission process | 2 steps (LOI + full application) | 2 steps (LOI + full application) | 1 step (full application) |
| Duration of projects | Maximum 3 years | Maximum 2 years | Maximum 3 years |
| Total amount | $1,000,000 - $2,000,000 | $150,000 - $300,000 | $700,000 from the CQDM and €500,000 from Alsace BioValley |
| Mentorship program | 3 mentors/project | At least 1 mentor/project | No mentor |
| Important dates | Call for proposals August 24th, 2011 |
Call for proposals December 1st, 2011 |
Call for proposals September 1st, 2011 |
Deadline for submission of the letters of intent October 26th, 2011 |
Deadline for submission of the letters of intent February 21st, 2012 |
Interest in the networking event September 20th, 2011 |
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Announcement of the selected letters of intent December 6th, 2011 |
Announcement of the selected letters of intent April 5th, 2012 |
Networking event in MontrealX October 13-14th, 2011 |
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Deadline to submit full proposals February 15th, 2012 |
Deadline to submit full proposals June 12th, 2012 |
Deadline to submit full proposals February 8th, 2012 |
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Final selection announcement April 25th, 2012 |
Final selection announcementx September 24th, 2012 |
Final selection announcement May 1st , 2012 |
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Signature of the research agreement July 23rd, 2012 |
Signature of the research agreement November 26th, 2012 |
Signature of the research agreement October 2012 |
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Funding release and beginning of the projects September 1st, 2012 |
Funding release and beginning of the projects December 3rd, 2012 |
Funding release and beginning of the projects October 2012 |
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