Agtech Demonstration Program

Are you a researcher, student, professor, or research professional?

Do you have expertise, technology, research findings, or an innovation that could address one of the major industry challenges listed below?

The Agtech Zone invites you to apply your expertise to address a priority need in the industry and supports you in transforming that potential into an entrepreneurial project and bringing your innovation to market.

You don’t need to already have a business or possess the complete solution. Your expertise may address just one component of a challenge. The program aims, in particular, to bring together the necessary complementary expertise and to support the selected team in refining the solution, establishing the company, and bringing it to market.

1 TEAM PER CHALLENGE SELECTED AND SUPPORTED

UP TO 12 MONTHS OF PERSONALIZED SUPPORT

EXPERTS BY YOUR SIDE: VALUE CREATION, IP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, FINANCING, AND TECHNOLOGY

REAL NEEDS EXPRESSED BY THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

A PLACE TO GROW AT THE AGTECH ZONE INNOVATION CENTER

Turn your expertise the starting point for a business

The Agtech Zone’s Continuum Agtech program aims to stimulate the creation of entrepreneurial projects centered on the industry’s priority needs by leveraging the expertise, technologies, and innovations stemming from Quebec’s public research sector.

For each challenge, the Agtech Zone engages the college and university community to identify the most promising expertise and innovations. A team is then selected and receives structured support to:

Expand its solution and team;
Maximize one's potential through collaborations with the business community;
Create the conditions necessary for starting and growing a business.

The program is carried out in collaboration with CRIBIQ and is supported by Axelys’ Continuum Program, Component 1: Scientific Entrepreneurship.

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Why take part?

Start with a real need in the industry

Work on a specific, high-priority problem identified directly by industry stakeholders.

Build Your Team

Does your expertise cover only part of the solution? The Agtech Zone helps you tap into complementary expertise and connect with scientific, technological, and industrial partners.

Validate the potential of your innovation

Compare your expertise or technology with user needs and market realities to clarify the solution’s value proposition and the conditions for its success.

Protect and Promote Your Innovation

Take advantage of Axelys’ expertise to analyze intellectual property issues and develop a commercialization strategy tailored to your project.

Build Your Business

Get support in structuring your entrepreneurial project, building your team, developing your business model, navigating business law, formulating a marketing strategy, and starting your business.

Engage partners and secure funding

Tap into the agtech ecosystem to engage the necessary research, industry, and financial partners, establish an innovation consortium where appropriate, and prepare funding proposals.

Join an ecosystem to continue growing

The company created as part of the program will be able to set up operations at the innovation center in the agtech zone, where it will continue to grow alongside innovative companies, researchers, experts, and industry partners.

The expertise brought to bear for your project

The Agtech Zone team oversees and supports the project, then brings in the specialized expertise needed to move it forward as required. This expertise may come from:

Axelys: intellectual property, commercialization, and scientific entrepreneurship;
Universities and CCTTs: scientific and technological expertise and development;
Industry partners and users: validation of the need and the solution;
Business Law Experts: Incorporation and Corporate Structure;
Financing experts: strategy and financial structuring;
Entrepreneurs and Coaches: Business Model, Team, and Entrepreneurial Development;
Industrial partners: development, integration, demonstration, and commercialization.

Are you a student at Université Laval? You can also take advantage of the ULavaL Entrepreneurship Ideation Program.

Selected students from Laval University will have the opportunity to participate in the ULaval Entrepreneurship Ideation Program before beginning the mentorship with Zone Agtech, subject to its eligibility criteria and terms and conditions.

Inspired by design thinking and entrepreneurial practices, this nine-session program allows participants to explore a real-world challenge, better understand needs, brainstorm ideas, create a prototype of a solution, and prepare a pitch. The program is offered free of charge to eligible participants.

Learn About the Ideation Program

Who can participate?

Calls for solutions are open to all members of Quebec’s college and university community who possess expertise, technology, research findings, a concept, or an innovation that could contribute to addressing one of the proposed challenges.

Eligible participants include, among others:

undergraduate, master's, or doctoral students;
postdoctoral fellows;
faculty members and researchers;
research professionals;
interdisciplinary teams and research teams.

Your innovation doesn’t need to be ready for the market or address the entire challenge. The program is specifically designed to supplement expertise, structure the entrepreneurial project, and support its progress toward the market.

Requirements Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible, the project must, among other things:

Be a member of Quebec's college or university community;
Be based on expertise, technology, research findings, or an innovation with commercialization potential;
Contribute to addressing at least one aspect of one of the proposed challenges;
Demonstrate potential for entrepreneurial and commercial growth;
Meet Axelys’ applicable criteria regarding commercialization and intellectual property;
Demonstrate a willingness to support the team when additional expertise is needed;
Demonstrate a commitment to starting a business centered on innovation;
Actively participate in the support process and collaborate with the partners involved;
Plan for the newly established company to be located at the Agtech Zone Innovation Center, in accordance with the applicable procedures.

How does that work?

Discover the challenges

Review the priority needs identified by the industry and determine which ones your expertise or innovation could help address.

Offer your expertise or solution

Describe your expertise, technology, or research and explain how they could help address the challenge.

Meet Us

Meetings are held with the finalist teams to assess their potential and explore opportunities for collaboration with other areas of expertise.

Outline the solution and the business venture

The selected team receives an assessment and guidance to validate the market, build out the team, and develop a technology and business roadmap.

Implement the strategy

The selected team receives support to engage partners and secure the funding and resources needed to advance the innovation.

Prepare the next step and continue the aging process

The selected team receives support in planning the next phases of product development, funding, and commercialization at the Agtech Zone’s innovation center.

Overview Challenges

Industry stakeholders have identified priority needs for which solutions are actively being sought. Explore the currently open challenges and discover how your work could become the starting point for a new entrepreneurial solution.

01. Reinventing Strawberry Picking

What solutions are available for detecting, reaching, and harvesting ripe strawberries manually or automatically, without damaging the fruit or the plant, despite the foliage and varying production conditions?

Check out the challenge

02. Improving wastewater management in the agri-food processing industry

What innovative solutions could reduce the concentrations and loads of organic and nitrogenous substances in wastewater from agri-food processing, while taking into account the operational and economic realities of the plants?

Check out the challenge