Access to Talent Program
Highlights
The Access to Talent Program is designed specifically for businesses like yours. It helps you hire experienced professionals to achieve key milestones in developing your innovative natural products or technologies. This program offers non-dilutive, non-repayable funding, which means you won't have to give up any equity or pay back the funds.
What You Get
- Up to 40% of the new employee’s salary covered, with a maximum of $75,000 for individuals with 5-9 years of experience.
- Up to 40% of the new employee’s salary covered, with a maximum of $150,000 for senior-level individuals with 10+ years of experience.
Benefits to Your Business
- Financial Relief: Reduce your salary costs significantly, allowing you to allocate resources to other critical areas.
- Expertise: Bring in skilled professionals to drive your project forward, enhancing your research, development, and commercialization efforts.
- Growth: Achieve key milestones faster, positioning your business for greater success and market impact.
Applying is straightforward, and the program is tailored to support your business's unique needs. This is a valuable opportunity to advance your innovative projects with the help of experienced talent.
Financing Details
Type of Financing: Wage Subsidy
Repayment Terms and Interest Rates:
- This program offers non-repayable funding. There are no interest rates or repayment terms.
Eligible Expenses:
- Funds can be used towards the salary costs of hiring an experienced individual for key positions.
- Eligible positions include:
- Product or technology development
- Business development
- Regulatory strategy
- Product or technology scale-up
- Marketing or sales strategy
- Fundraising
Ineligible Expenses:
- Funds cannot be used for recruitment costs or any expenses outside of salary costs.
Fees:
- A non-refundable project administration fee of 5% of total project costs plus GST/HST is required. This fee is not considered an eligible project cost.
Qualifications
- Must be an incorporated Canadian SME or start-up company with up to 25 employees.
- Must have a novel natural product or technology that aligns with NPC’s definitions of natural products or technologies.
- Product or technology must fit within the TRL 4-9 of the Government of Canada’s established Technology Readiness Levels.
- Must have the potential to achieve $10MM to $15MM in annual revenue within a reasonable period for the market or sector.
- Must demonstrate potential for significant economic, social, health, and/or environmental benefits.
- Must show technological advancement and benefits to the natural products ecosystem across Canada.
- Must prove technical feasibility of the project.
- Must have potential for commercialization in Canada.
- Must show potential spillover benefits to more than one sector.
- Must demonstrate potential for improving the representation of women, visible minorities, and Indigenous peoples in the natural products ecosystem.
Must be a member of Canada’s Natural Product Innovation Cluster.
Disqualifications:
- Technologies and solutions based on IT (software, hardware, AI, etc.) or mechanical solutions (drones, automation, etc.) that exclude a biological element.
Description
The Access to Talent Program is a great opportunity for your business to grow by hiring experienced professionals. This program helps you bring in talent to achieve important milestones for developing your natural product or technology.
You can receive up to 40% of the new employee’s salary, with a maximum of $75,000 for individuals with 5-9 years of experience, and up to $150,000 for those with 10+ years of experience. Your business will need to cover the remaining 60% of the salary costs.
The funds are specifically for salary costs and can be used to fill key roles such as product development, business development, marketing, sales, and more. This support can last up to 18 months, giving you the time and resources to advance your innovative projects. The funding is non-repayable, making it a valuable investment in your business’s future.
Program Steps
Contact NPC: Email NPC at [email protected] to express your interest in the program.
Initial Review: An NPC team member will review your company's eligibility, project scope, and the position you wish to fill.
Prepare Documentation: Gather the necessary documents for your application:
- Business plan
- Financial statements
- Project description
- Candidate's resume (if identified)
- Proof of incorporation
- Evidence of alignment with NPC’s definitions of natural products or technologies
Submit Application: Complete and submit the application form along with the required documentation to NPC.
Application Evaluation: NPC will evaluate your application based on criteria such as the novelty of your product or technology, market opportunity, and the qualifications of the candidate.
Feedback and Revision: NPC will provide feedback on your application. You may need to revise and resubmit your application based on this feedback.
Final Review: If your revised application meets the criteria, it will be reviewed by the Commercialization Sub-Committee for a final funding decision.
Notification: NPC will notify you of the final decision. If approved, you will receive a contract outlining the project scope, reporting requirements, and key milestones.
Hire Candidate: If not already identified, recruit and hire the candidate. Submit the candidate's resume to NPC for approval.
Reporting: Submit quarterly reports, including written and financial claims, invoices, and proof of payment. Pay the non-refundable project administration fee of 5% of total project costs plus GST/HST.
Annual Reporting: Provide annual reports during the project and for five years after the project ends.