I mentioned in an an earlier post that you can now get free market research through a provincial program managed by MaRS in Toronto with Communitech as its local agent.

As part of the same program, your company can get up to $10,000 in funding for a project to help move your product along the path to market. The program won't pay for general business services, such as business plan consulting or marketing consulting or fundraising assistance, but will cover costs related to moving technologies from an idea to a product, such as third-party validation, testing, IP protection, certification, and licensing.

The funding can also be used to pay for market research—going beyond the prepared reports that are available through the market intelligence program.

The money has to be used to fund a project with specific deliverables. You—or the person you want to hire to do the project—will need to outline what work is going to be done, by when, what the deliverable is and how it will help your business. 

They don't pay in advance, but it's a straight grant—no repayment, no cost to you at all. You just need to get approval ... and, so far, most of what we've submitted has been given the freen light. It may not be that way forever—there's only so much money to go around and though the demand has been less than expected, it probably won't stay that way.

If you're interested in applying, or want more information, just send me an e-mail at gary@communitech.ca. If you've been working with any member of Communitech's venture services team—Ron, Kevin, or Dan—they can also give you all the information you need.