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Esposito Family Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

UFV/Esposito Family Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship/Innovation grant

Innovation grant

EFCIE Innovation Grants bring faculty mentors and students together in student-faculty teams to expand on initial student or faculty work either by developing a working prototype or by assessing the viability of a proposed solution in a rigorous manner. As part of this process, experts from EFCIE will mentor each student-faculty team in the areas of evaluating market opportunities and guiding validated solutions to society.

Term: 1 year

Value: 

Applications invited: December 1, 2023 onward
Application deadline: February 29, 2024 

Eligibility

General stream: These grants are open to joint UFV student-faculty teams.

STEM Stream: These grants are sponsored by the Faculty of Science. They're open to joint UFV STEM student-faculty teams.

Recent UFV STEM graduates who have graduated within 12 months also qualify if supervising faculty supports the project.

Before applying for this funding:

  • Approach a faculty member who has affirmed an idea you generated as part of a course project.
  • Ask the faculty member to co-sign your application and to commit to mentoring you in developing this idea.

To apply:

  • Write a 750-word (maximum) letter. This letter should:
    • Outline a problem in society that you want to solve and your proposed idea for solving it.
    • Summarize any previous work performed and results achieved during your course-work.
    • Explain how your faculty mentor's academic accomplishments are relevant to your idea.
    • Mention the amount of funding requested (approximately $1,000 to $4,000) and provide a brief justification for eligible expenses and reasonable costs.
  • Attach previous project material.
  • Email the letter and attachments as a single PDF document to innovate@ufv.ca

The Adjudication Committee will prioritize ideas with a clear link between the proposed solution and a significant unmet need or problem facing society.

The committee will also consider the initial results from your student project and the degree of match between your proposed solution and your mentor’s academic accomplishments.

If you receive the Innovation team grant:

  • your student-faculty team will need to submit a 2-page report at the end of the grant period explaining your results.

  • you are expected to meet with EFCIE mentors at least once every 3 months to receive mentoring on market opportunity evaluation.
  • your team should connect with EFCIE at least 14 days prior to public disclosure of relevant results through conferences, posters, abstracts, academic journal submissions
  • your team agrees to acknowledge UFV and the EFCIE Innovation Team Grant funding in publications resulting from this work.
  • your team is encouraged to participate in the creation of promotional materials and/ or events relevant to your proposed solution.

 

Don't have a team yet?

Apply to be part of an innovation team »

2024 Awardees

Amber Feaver (Dr. Justin Lee) $4000.00 - Biology, Faculty of Science

Jed Mamish (Dr. Justin Lee) $4000.00 - Biology, Faculty of Science

Zoki Gu (Dr. Opeyemi Adesina) $3725.00 - Computing, Faculty of Science

Ania Bula (Dr. Lucy Lee) $4000.00 - Biology, Faculty of Science

Robert Bocsanu (Dr. Opeyemi Adesina) $4000.00 - Computing, Faculty of Science

Nicola Ferguson (Dr. Olav Lian) $4000.00 - Geoscience, Faculty of Science

Ronald Balagtas (Dr. Golfam Ghafouifar) $4000.00 - Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Anoop Sidhu (Dr. Golfam Ghafouifar) $4000.00 - Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Joel Algera (Dr. Omer Waqar) $4000.00 - Computing, Faculty of Science

Suveer Bhatia (Dr. Amir Shabani) $4000.00 - Computing, Faculty of Science

Ishwak Sharda (Dr. Amir Shabani) $4000.00 - Computing, Faculty of Science

2023 Awardees

Austin Atkins (Dr. Justin Lee) $4000.00

Trisha Kumar (Dr. Kirsten Robertson) $2000.00

Nandish Khandelwal (Dr. Javad Hadian) $2000.00

Dilan Praat (Dr. Greg Schmaltz) $4000.00

Nicola Ferguson (Dr. Olav Lian) $4000.00

Agnes Kim (Dr. Bosu Seo) $4000.00

Jarrod Jones (Dr. Lin Long) $4000.00

Halen Davies (Dr. Lin Long) $4000.00

Shubham Rishi (Dr. Amir Shabani) $3500.00

Saransh Ahuja (Dr. Amir Shabani) $2000.00

2022 Awardees

Katriana VanWoudenberg (Dr. Justin Lee) $4000.00

Vanessa Brewer (Dr. Olav Lian) $4000.00

Heather Kelly (Dr. Justin Lee) $4000.00

Halen Davies, Gary Galicia, Josh Gourde, Paulina Mansilla, Zhengwei Miao (Dr. Lin Long) $6300.00

Rozziene Eguia, Nick Pickering, Duy Le (Dr. Lin Long) $3019.23

Qamar Tahari (Dr. Cory Beshara) $4000.00

Trisha Kumar (Dr. Saeed Rahman) $1130.00