NBIF Launches $100,000 Innovation Challenge

Province-wide competition offers businesses the chance to bring in $100,000 in R&D funding

FREDERICTON, NB—The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) today announced the launch of its first R3 Innovation Challenge. Open to New Brunswick-based companies, the two with the most innovative and commercially-viable ideas will each receive $50,000 worth of research and development services at a New Brunswick post-secondary institution or research organization.

« Innovation is crucial for the province's economic growth, » says NBIF Chair Robert Hatheway, « If New Brunswick wants to be competitive in the ever-changing environment of today's business world, then we have to put R&D and innovation at the center of everything we do. Companies that encourage collaboration with the research community can open themselves up to opportunities that even the biggest corporations are striving for. »

Each of the two companies selected will be matched with a New Brunswick researcher who will collaborate with them on the project. The funding will flow directly to the collaborating research institution as a fully funded Emerging Project under NBIF's Research Innovation Fund. At the end of their R3 Innovation Challenge project, the companies will own any intellectual property developed.

« If you had the chance to listen to the conversations at any company, eventually you'll hear someone share a great idea for a new product, or a better way of doing something, » says NBIF President & CEO Calvin Milbury, « But for most small to medium- sized companies, they simply don't have the time, expertise, and facilities to put that idea into development. We created the R3 Innovation Challenge to show companies how they can collaborate with the province's research community to turn their ideas into innovations. »

The deadline for submissions to the R3 Innovation Challenge is February 28, 2012. The two recipients will be announced at the third bi-annual R3 Gala on March 21, 2012, when NBIF will honour three of New Brunswick's top applied research with the R3 Innovation Award for Excellence in Applied Research.

For more information about the R3 Innovation Challenge, please visit: http://nbif.ca/eng/r3ic-en