Application deadline: May 1st, 2022
⚠ This call for projets has been closed. To stay in touch, subscribe to our newsletter (it’s in French, though)!
March 28
Opening dates for projects
April 13
Information Session EventMay 1
Closing date for projects
May 12
Selection Pitches
May 26-27
Bootcamp
June 8
Program Start
In partnership with:
Who is the Accélération Program for?
This program, designed to offer support that is tailored to your growth objectives, is for your if:
You have an entrepreneurial project, whether you are an NPO, a cooperative, a corporation or other, or whether you are a professional or a researcher in an intrapreneurial process
Your project is at the stage of commercialization or growth (meaning you have a validated proof of concept ensuring that your solution meets the needs of your users and that it is feasible, or a proven model that is ready to scale up)
Your team is located in Quebec
Your project answers to a specific identified challenge in the sectors of health or food systems, with an innovative, efficient and realistic solution, that might be:
A technological innovation (hardware or software)
An organizational innovation
A social innovation
2 sectors wanted for this cohort
For this cohort, we are specifically looking for projects that address challenges from 2 big sectors:
Health
Prevention, promotion of healthy lifestyles
Continuity and accessibility of services
Improvement of health care trajectories
Training and collaboration of stakeholders (patients, clinicians, specialists, etc.)
Helping people stay in their homes
Health of the elderly
Mental health care and services
Sexual health care and services
Food Systems
Innovation in food production (new technologies and practices)
Local supply and short circuits
Self-production and food sovereignty of communities
Food and nutritional security (accessibility and quality of supply)
Soil and ecosystem health
*These are the main issues targeted by this call for projects, but we invite every entrepreneur who have projects with a significant impact on community health or food systems to submit their application.
What are the objectives of the program?
Develop your entrepreneurial skills
Strengthen your marketing plan and initiate the scaling of your model
Develop a financing strategy adapted to your model
Consolidate your impact strategy
Strengthen your communication with your stakeholders
Connect yourself with business, investment, research and innovation networks
The Accélération program supports cohorts of entrepreneurs in maximizing their social and environmental impact and making their business model sustainable. This program is tailored to propel your project and your team!
What is the content of the program?
A personalized support over 9 months
An intensive 2-day bootcamp to bring teams together, meet stakeholders, stimulate creativity and collaboration and reflect on your social and environmental impact
10 workshops on tools developed by our impact entrepreneurship experts, directly applied to your project
Up to 80 hours of personalized coaching with impact, innovation, entrepreneurship, funding and business development coaches and experts
The coaching will lead you to work on these blocks of skills:
Systemic leadership
Impact measurement
Commercialisation strategy
Strategic Partnerships
Financing your growth
Investment readiness
The bootcamp will take place on May 26 and 27 (possibly in person or hybrid).
The (online) workshops will take place on Wednesday mornings from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm on the following dates:
Workshop 1
June 8
Workshop 2
June 22
Workshop 3
July 6
Workshop 4
July 13
Workshop 5
September 14
Workshop 6
September 28
Workshop 7
October 12
Workshop 8
October 26
Workshop 9
November 9
Workshop 10
November 23
A wrap-up meeting will be held on December 7.
Some workshops will be differentiated by sector to better adapt to specific issues related to health and food systems. We also use group coaching to encourage exchanges between peers, mutual and collective enrichment, and to work on complementarity and synergies between projects.
In parallel to the workshops, your team will be put in touch with a senior business coach and an expertise unit. These coaches and experts will offer you personalized coaching hours, adapted to your objectives and your sector. These hours can be spread out between June and February, depending on your availability.
Opportunities for this cohort
A $10,000 grant
As a proud Quebec company, Lassonde is happy to give back to the community by supporting innovations with a positive social and environmental impact.
By offering a $10,000 grant to one of the projects in this cohort, it will encourage impact entrepreneurship and contribute to the well-being and health of the population.
Collaboration with the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
The collaboration between the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-
Thus, the entrepreneurs whose innovations are selected by the CCSMTL for these challenges could have access to a field of experimentation to test their solution in a real environment, confirm their hypotheses and model, obtain tangible data or gain visibility and credibility thanks to the development of their innovation with a major player in the Quebec health sector.
Within the framework of this collaboration, here are the challenges of the DAL for which we are looking for innovative solutions, whether they are technological or organizational:
Staff shortage: attracting, recruiting and retaining employees to ensure access to care and help maintain a quality care trajectory for patients
Optimizing logistics to ensure improved access to care, particularly in the context of workforce shortages
Responsible procurement, particularly for catering, in a context where the issue of responsibility must be combined with a complex and restrictive legal context, a shortage of manpower and limited budgets
Fluidity of processes between DAL services in order to contribute to the quality of the care trajectory
Any other impactful solutions that can support the DAL in supporting services for quality care for consumers.
It should be noted that only those entrepreneurial projects that most adequately meet the needs of the CCSMTL could take advantage of this opportunity. These pilot projects will have to be the subject of a specific agreement with the CCSMTL and the Esplanade before the experimentation begins, particularly with regard to data confidentiality.
Opportunities for collaboration with research
The Esplanade has strong ties with the research and innovation community in Quebec. By joining the Accélération program, you can benefit from this and accelerate the development of your innovation!
Meet experts in your sector
Access accurate and recent data on your sector
Test your solution in a real environment
Finance your R&D work thanks to the grants and funding to which you are entitled as an entrepreneur
How much does it cost?
Thanks to its financial partners, the Esplanade covers nearly 90% of the costs of the project. Once selected, participating organizations will have to pay a residual cost of $750 + taxes per project.
Grants offered by LOJIQ
If you are between the ages of 18 and 35 and have been accepted into an Esplanade program, you may be eligible for financial support from the Offices jeunesse internationaux du Québec (LOJIQ) to cover part of your registration fees and receive a financial support for your participation (several conditions apply).
For more information, visit their website (French).
How are projects selected?
Selection process
The selection process is divided into 2 phases:
Pre-selection: a first selection will be made upon receipt of the application files. The files will be analyzed according to the evaluation criteria mentioned below by the Esplanade team and our sector partners
Selection on pitch: the shortlisted candidates will be invited to present their project in front of a jury who will then make a final decision
The selection pitches will be held online. The final decision of the jury will be communicated to you on May 17 at the latest.
Evaluation criteria
We select projects based on the quality and potential of their impact, as well as on the team’s ability to carry the project and make it grow.
The jury will therefore pay particular attention to:
Expertise (business experience and domain knowledge) of the team
Level of commitment and motivation of the entrepreneurial team, ability to question themselves
Degree of innovation of the project and differentiating and complementary value proposition in the ecosystem
Stage of development of the solution, degree of validation of the proof of concept and business model
Potential for social and environmental impact on the identified communities
Articulated integration of impact into the value proposition
Potential and capacity to scale up the project
Questions?
Information session
A virtual information session has been held in French on April 13.
Individual meetings
If you wish, you can also book a 15-minute slot with a member of our team to discuss your project and its eligibility.
You can also visit our FAQ (French) or write to [email protected].