Innovation program — Call for First-time Adopter Projects

• Completed and signed financial assistance application form
• Signed letter from the supporting incubator/accelerator (issued within the last 3 months)
• Letter(s) of commitment from the first-time adopter company(ies)
• Financial statements for the last two fiscal years
• Two-year cash budget and two-year financial forecasts (income statement and balance sheet)

• The applicant must be a Quebec-based startup (incorporated under federal or Quebec law and registered with the Quebec Enterprise Registrar), with R&D carried out mainly from Quebec and with employees/subcontractors working mainly in Quebec.
• The startup must be in a pre-commercialization stage (developing a first product/process, without regular and recurring sales for it).
• The startup must be supported at the time of application by an eligible Quebec-based incubator or accelerator and provide a signed support/commitment letter.
• The startup must partner with a Quebec-incorporated “first-time adopter” (established organization that sells products/services to clients) that intends to ultimately acquire the startup’s product/process and holds no equity in the startup.
• The project must be a collaborative innovation/R&D project carried out jointly by the startup and the first-time adopter, including in-situ testing in the adopter’s environment and a real-world demonstration component.

Who is eligible?

• Quebec-based innovative technology startups in the pre-commercialization phase (first-time adopters projects)
• Established Quebec-based companies acting as “first adopters” (early adopters) partnering with a startup to test and validate a new technology in real operating conditions

Who is not eligible

• Applicants or subcontractors listed (provisionally or definitively) in Québec’s Register of enterprises ineligible for public contracts (RENA).
• Companies listed as non-compliant with the francization process by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).
• Businesses that, in the last 2 years, failed to meet obligations related to a previous Québec government financial assistance after being formally put in default.
• Holding companies, Crown corporations, government-controlled corporations, or entities under insolvency protection (e.g., CCAA) or bankruptcy proceedings.
• Organizations whose main business activity is in excluded sectors: controversial weapons; fossil fuels (exploration/extraction/drilling/production/refining of oil or thermal coal, except activities aimed at a transition to a low-carbon economy); gambling; violent games or combat sports involving living species; sexual exploitation (e.g., erotic bars, escort agencies, erotic massage parlours, swinger clubs, pornography); tobacco or drug consumption-related products/services (with limited exceptions related to cannabis and industrial hemp).

Eligible expenses

• Project-related salaries, wages and employee benefits.
• Professional fees for specialized services, including subcontracting.
• Travel and accommodation expenses (according to Québec government travel standards).
• Direct costs for materials and inventory.
• Direct equipment costs (prorated based on the project duration versus the equipment’s useful life).
• Equipment rental fees (and land rental fees, where applicable).
• Animal facility and platform fees (where applicable).
• Costs to prepare an intellectual property (IP) protection strategy and to obtain or acquire IP rights or licences (including patent-related fees such as patent agent fees), where tied to the project.
• External testing and certification/approval (homologation) costs.
• External auditor costs for project verification and compliance with standards.
• Certification-related costs.
• Incubator/accelerator management fees (up to 5%).
• Where applicable, project set-up and management fees by an organization that brings together innovative companies (up to 2%).

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Expenses incurred before the complete application file is submitted and deemed eligible (including costs tied to contractual commitments made beforehand).
• Fees paid to the first-time adopter partner.
• Fees paid to a company where a shareholder is also a shareholder of the first-time adopter or the startup.
• Debt service and capital-related costs (e.g., loan repayments, capital losses, capital replacement).
• Sales taxes applicable in Québec.

Eligible geographic areas

• Quebec (startup must have its head office in Quebec and conduct R&D primarily from Quebec; both the startup and the first-time adopter partner must be registered with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec).

• Scientific and/or technological quality of the project (30 points).
• Collaboration and expertise to carry out the project (20 points).
• Project delivery: implementation steps and financial package/financing plan (20 points).
• Scientific, technological and social impacts/benefits (30 points).
• Overall threshold: the evaluation committee recommends funding if the total score is above 75%.

• The application is first checked for eligibility; incomplete files are not analyzed.
• Eligible projects undergo a technico-scientific evaluation by sector-based committees of technical experts.
• The committee meets about one month after the submission deadline and recommends projects for funding if the overall score exceeds 75% (subject to available budget).
• The Ministry informs selected startups, and publishes on its website the list of selected projects or funded businesses.
• If approved, a financial assistance agreement is signed with Investissement Québec; the startup must meet reporting and compliance obligations (including a final report, and possibly an external auditor’s report).

• This call for projects was marked as closed on October 17, 2025.
• Required application files must be written in French, as per the program guide.
• Incomplete applications are not analyzed.
• If a business has a website and operates in Québec, it must have a French version of its website before financial assistance can be granted.