Incubator/ Accelerator Award

This award honours a university, college, community-focused non-profit, or government organisation that consistently and effectively supports venture creation and community engagement demonstrating a commitment to inclusivity and belonging. Selection criteria will include the strength of program content, demonstrated outcomes, diversity of participants, inclusive practices, growth of the program or initiative over time, and level of community engagement.

This award is open to a Canadian university, college, community-focused non-profit or government organisation that supports the process of launching and accelerating new ventures through programming such as competitions, incubators, accelerators, and educational activities, with particular emphasis on community engagement, including collaboration between universities, colleges, community-focused non-profits, government organisations or private sector initiatives.

Application Process

1. Clearly state the program’s purpose, strategic goals, objectives and target audience.
2. Describe how the venture creation program works and how it supports the launch and growth of new ventures, small businesses or entrepreneurs.
3. Outline how the program engages the community (mentors, entrepreneurs, funders, faculty, alumni, etc.) with the associated ventures.
4. Describe how your program specifically addresses the cultivation of startup founders who identify as a member of traditionally underrepresented populations in entrepreneurship, such as but not limited to BIPOC, women, 2SLGBTQIA or individuals from low-income backgrounds.
5. Provide a list of demonstrated outcomes from your efforts in any of the types of activities (competitions, incubators, accelerators) including, but not limited to:
   • Number of participants and/or teams
   • Dollar value and number of awards granted (to startup entrepreneurs)
     Number of startups generated
   • Number of startups that generate revenue
   • Number of FTE employees hired by the startups
   • The % of startups that are in business two years after completing your programs
   • Information on alumni who have achieved success or continued growing their venture
   • Information about entrepreneurs who made noteworthy contributions to their community. 

The nomination document should be a maximum of 3 single-sided letter-size pages, formatted with 1-inch margins, and using a minimum 11-point font but applications may include up to a maximum of 10 supporting pages in the form of appendices, supplemental materials, letters of support, examples of the work, etc. 

Judging Criteria 

Nominees will be judged from 0 to 4, where 0 indicates that the requirement is not met, 1 indicates requirement was minimally met, 2 indicates requirement was partially met, 3 indicates requirement was completely met, and 4 indicates requirement was exceeded:

• The program has clear goals for how they support the launch and growth of startups or small businesses [10% weighting].
• The program has been consistent and effective in supporting the launch and growth of startups and cultivating a sense of belonging for founders from traditionally underrepresented populations such as, but not limited to, BIPOC, women, LGBTQIA and individuals from low-income backgrounds [40% weighting].
• The nominated entity offers a comprehensive venture support and growth programming. Factors might include content, entrepreneurs from the community, mentors, seed funding, workspace, or other valuable resources [15% weighting].
• The venture creation program effectively engages a breadth of contributors from both the campus and external community [15% weighting].
• The program or initiative demonstrated significant outcomes and noteworthy achievements [20% weighting]. 

Submission Notes

• Please use the weighting in the judging criteria to guide the content of your application.
• When including supporting pages, reference these in the nomination document so it is clear how the additional items relate to the nomination.
• The supporting pages should be appended to the 3-page nomination document and emailed as a single PDF document to [email protected].  Applications should aim for a maximum combined file size of 20 MB.
• Each award will typically have one winner; however, the judges may decide to award more than one winner where a tie is determined.  
• Award nominations should only include new information that has not been previously awarded for in the past.    

Applications should be emailed to [email protected] by  October 17, 2024. 

Winners may be asked to provide a representative on the Award Judging Committee to evaluate nominations the following year.