The goal of the Food from Thought (FfT) [1] program is to increase the sustainability and productivity of global food production by leveraging the power of leading-edge data science, agri-food research and biodiversity science. This university wide initiative is funded in part by a $76.6 million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund [2].

FfT grants will enable researchers who are working on projects that align with this goal by providing funding and learning experiences to propel their discoveries forward. These grants will also benefit the entire agri-food industry by supporting the development of open, shared platforms and tools.

More information about the Research Innovation Immersion Placement Grants and Product Development Grants is available under the Food from Thought Grants [3] page. If you are interested in workshops that your will expose research team/students to new skills that can help them to envision and communicate solutions and to develop fruitful, long term relationships with industry please check out our Advantage Workshops [4].

Made possible by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance [5], Gryphon's LAAIR Grants are ideal for identifying target markets and testing concepts with end users. Two streams of Gryphon's LAAIR funding are offered annually - Market Validation funding and Product Development funding. For more information, see the Gryphon's LAAIR Funding Program [6] page. 

Applications for the Barrett grants should focus on ideas for creating world-class food technologies that will build a more sustainable and competitive food industry. These funds are provided to research teams that include an engineering department partner. 

For more information, see Barrett 2019 Sustainable Food Engineering Grants [15]. 

Increasingly often, growing businesses seeking financing are asked to participate in pitch competitions where they present their products or services to investors and compete to win prize money that can help them run their start-ups.

It works like this: A panel of well-known CEOs and venture capitalists judge pitches from UofG businesses looking to scale up. The winners get the glory and funding to help them grow and prosper. 

These are lively, engaging events aimed at sharing success stories, networking to gather fresh ideas and inspiring our colleagues to think about how they, too, can have an impact with commercial ventures.

See our Pitch Competitions [16] page for more detail.