Research is a critical part of innovation and growth.

We invest in researchers whose projects have a high potential for commercialization and or economic impact in New Brunswick. We’re proud to back both early-stage research and more established projects, carried out by researchers based at publicly funded NB institutions. All our grants are non-repayable.

By investing in our province’s researchers and helping to bring their work to its commercial potential, we do our part to help our province, its economy, and its residents.

Some of the ways we review research commercialization include:

If your innovation is patented, it can be licensed for a fee to another person or company for them to exploit the innovation. This is a good option for those researchers who would like to generate revenue from their idea, but don’t want to lead the commercialization effort themselves.

Similarly, the innovation can be sold outright, either via the sale of the patent or sale of the research product (prototype/algorithm, etc.) generated by the researcher. Generally, the technology must already be mature to interest a potential buyer.

For promising innovations that are still early stage but have strong future potential, the formation of your own company to exploit and commercialize the innovation may be the best option and is generally the one with the highest potential revenue. However, the investment in time is usually very significant, and the projected revenue outcomes are far from guaranteed.

We define this as research carried out specifically for one or more industrial partners, where the partner generally pays a fee to the researcher upfront and then keeps some or all the research results generated.

Some innovations suit themselves better to a service provision, e.g. fee for service for an innovative analysis from a researcher’s lab.

Particularly in the social sciences, innovations may be directed at improvements in public policy or processes, which are anticipated to have a positive economic impact (e.g. through cost avoidance or direct savings).

NBIF project funding timeline