Deadline Date: Ongoing
The Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub offers mentorship and advisory services to innovative agri-food companies to help advance their solutions and technologies to market.
The initiative focuses on key priority areas including food safety, enhancing public confidence in the sector and mitigating hazards along the supply chain; animal health and welfare, addressing public expectations, reducing health hazards, and optimizing antimicrobial use; plant health and protection, improving resilience, reducing hazards, and promoting integrated pest management; soil health, protecting and enhancing soil quality to support agricultural productivity; water quality and quantity, strengthening sustainability through improved water management and conservation; sustainable production systems, focusing on soil and water management, nutrient stewardship, resource efficiency, and greenhouse gas reduction; productive land capacity, reducing farmland loss and supporting agricultural viability; competitive production systems, improving efficiency, productivity, technology adoption, automation, and waste reduction; innovative products and product improvements, enhancing competitiveness and sector growth through new or improved products; and trade, market, and targeted sector growth opportunities, expanding access to domestic and international markets and promoting niche or value-added products in priority areas such as dairy goats, hazelnuts, greenhouse production, maple syrup, processed vegetables, processed meats, baked goods, and cannabis/hemp.
The Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub, supported by OMAFRA through the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative under Sustainable CAP, provides a comprehensive suite of advisory services and mentorship to Ontario-based companies with promising discoveries. Selected companies enter into a Mentorship and Advisory Services Agreement, receiving 25 hours of guidance from a designated mentor or advisor matched to the company’s industry, stage, and operational needs. The program is designed to help companies strengthen competitiveness, grow market opportunities, and enhance resilience against future disruptions.
Eligible applicants are for-profit small and medium-sized enterprises incorporated in Canada with fewer than 50 employees, operating in Ontario, and developing technologies at or beyond Technology Readiness Level 3. Applicants must offer products, technologies, or services unique to Ontario that do not displace existing local products and operate within the agriculture, agri-food, or agri-based product sectors, including suppliers of technology or equipment to the sector.
Selected recipients will receive tailored mentorship and advisory services for up to 12 months and must agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the Bioenterprise Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub agreements. Through this program, OMAFRA aims to support the adoption and creation of innovative technologies that drive growth, sustainability, and competitiveness in Ontario’s agri-food sector.
For more information, visit Bioenterprise Canada.
