Harvest Accelerator – wasteCANcreate
Harnessing Agriculture for Research, Value-add Environmental Solutions, and Technology (HARVEST) is a nation-wide funding competition supporting innovative life sciences and biotechnology companies in Canada that are driving commercialization in clean technology advancements across agriculture and agri-food value chains.
HARVEST will fund innovative projects that advance clean technologies measurably reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The program encompasses a broad range of life science applications, including genomics, biotechnology, metabolomics, engineering biology, precision fermentation and best production practices. Companies are expected to co-fund a proposed project with their own financial resources.
Ontario Genomics, Genome Prairie, and Genome Alberta are combining our collective expertise in genomics, agriculture, and food biotechnology to support companies seeking to innovate and advance commercialization with a commitment to environmental responsibility.
The program is divided into two streams, Primary Agriculture Clean Technologies (PACT) and wasteCANcreate (wCc), to best leverage the strengths of each participating Genome Centre, and to most effectively address national needs for improvements in primary agriculture and waste valorization.
wasteCANcreate is focused on upcycling or reusing common agricultural and/or food and beverage processing sidestreams or by-products to improve existing processes and commercialize new bio-based products. Projects within wasteCANcreate will scale biological solutions, such as microbes (e.g., bacteria, yeasts, microalgae) and/or enzymes, to upcycle sidestreams or by-products into valuable products. Projects will be collaborative, with feedstocks providers, technology developers, and potential end users working together to de-risk these technologies.
Download and read the Program Guide
Program Objectives:
HARVEST has been designed to:
- Support Canadian Companies
- Strengthen Canada’s agriculture and food economy by integrating and expanding bio-based technologies
- Support the commercial success of Canadian products, manufacturers, and producers
- Drive development of less GHG intensive Canadian agricultural production without reducing productivity
- Position Canada as a leader for the creation, growth and scaling of biotechnology innovation in the global agri-food sector
HARVEST is not intended to fund:
- Academic Institutions except if/when contracted by the company as a partner in the project
- Fundamental research
- Market research
- Commercial launches of already-developed technology
- Patent enforcement or litigation
- Projects, project components or service provision (e.g. routine analyses or certain types of trials) that would normally be funded solely by the company
Eligibility Criteria:
- Applicant must be a Canadian for-profit enterprise.
- All funded work must happen within Canada.
- The project supports the invention, development or commercialization of a life science/biotechnology-based, or -enabled, innovation with a clearly articulated market opportunity.
- Additional partners are not mandatory but may strengthen a proposal (e.g. co-funding partners such as commodity groups, established companies interested in a strategic or distribution partnership, or interest as customers or end users).
- The project has the potential to generate economic impacts for the company as well as environmental benefits to Canada.
- Applicants will demonstrate the market potential of their innovations by outlining the competitive landscape, and industry positioning.
- Projects will be assessed on the potential environmental impacts resulting from the funded activities.
- Capacity of company to complete milestones and deliverables.
- Final eligibility decisions rest with the HARVEST organizers.
- Open to technologies that are ready to scale past the laboratory (~TRL4-5).
- Work contributes to an area within agriculture, food and beverage production, or other area in the food value chain.
- Utilizes an enzymatic, fermentation, and/or engineering biology-based process.
If you meet the above criteria, submit this form.
Funding Terms:
- HARVEST will contribute between $350,000 – $750,000 to each approved project.
- Project applicants must provide a minimum cash contribution to the project equivalent to one-third of the total project value. For example, if HARVEST contribution is $400,000, the applicant must provide at least $200,000 in co-funding. Projects will be considered more favourably with a co-funding commitment approaching one-half of the total project value (using the example in the previous point, applicants contributing near or up to $400,000 would be viewed more favourably).
- The maximum project term is 2 years (24-months), with eligible expense period between April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2028. No-cost extensions will not be allowed within HARVEST.
- 3-8 projects will be funded in each stream.
- One hundred per cent of the co-funding for the project must be received or committed before funds can be released. HARVEST reserves the right to withdraw its funding for any approved project that does not meet this requirement or if there is a change in a project’s co-funding status.
- Proposed project activities cannot already be part of any currently active Canadian Genome Enterprise or another federal program. Projects that build on, or complement, work completed under other federal programs are welcome.