On May 24, 2017, the federal government released the program guidelines for the Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI) competition which will allocate $950M to “accelerate commercialization, strengthen capacity in strategic platform technologies, help tackle challenges of importance to industry and to create new opportunities to boost the productivity and competitiveness of Canada’s sectors of economic strength.”

Applications to the ISI program will be led by industry consortia, however the involvement of post-secondary institutions in each supercluster is mandatory. University of Toronto faculty who are invited to take part or are considering engagement with an emerging consortium should contact the Innovation & Partnership Office via innovations.partnerships@utoronto.ca as soon as possible.

Letters of Intent to the program are due on July 21, 2017. Where an academic institution will participate in a consortium, a formal institutional support letter is required from the Vice-President, Research & Innovation. Please contact the Innovations & Partnerships Office if you have any questions on the ISI program and/or the application process.

Further information on the Innovation Superclusters Initiative can be found online.