Call for Projects – FEMTECH

Description

The FEMTECH call for projects aims to support the development and funding of collaborative projects between the private and public sectors in Quebec, with the aim of developing or evaluating health technologies to support women’s health, particularly in relation to the issues identified in the Plan d’action en santé et bien-être des femmes 2020-2024 of the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS).

Eligibility

Innovative project:

involving at least 1 industrial partner and at least 1 academic or clinical partner,
research, development or validation of an eligible healthcare technology (regulated medical devices + IT technologies/systems (algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, etc.), designed to support healthcare organizations),
with a maximum duration of 3 years,
carried out in Quebec.

Technology:

The technology developed must address an issue related to women’s health. Non-exhaustive list of issues identified in the Plan d’action en santé et bien-être des femmes 2020-2024 of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) du Québec:

Promoting access to reproductive health services,
Ensure quality screening for female cancers,
Ensure quality screening for female cancers,
Improve perinatal care and post-natal follow-up services,
Tailor mental health interventions to women’s needs (anorexia, bulimia, psychological distress),
Project does not significantly involve a Quebec SME
Assistance of 20% of eligible project expenses

The partner company(ies) must contribute a minimum of 40% of eligible project expenses.

The maximum value of the grant is $500,000 per year, for a maximum of 3 years, or $1.5 million per project.

Evaluation criteria

Grant applications will be judged on the basis of relevance, quality and economic, social or technological benefits for Quebec.

Description of the application process

The role of your account manager is to support you in structuring your project, including the identification of industrial, academic and/or clinical partners, and in putting together your grant application.

There will be several iterations of support and proof-reading to ensure that your funding application is as robust as possible.

Project partners must be members in good standing prior to the first review of the project.

The first submission date corresponds to the date by which you should have completed and sent a near-final project statement, which will be forwarded to the MEDTEQ+ team for proofreading and internal revision. If the project is deemed sufficiently robust, you will be invited to incorporate the comments made and submit your final version.

The final submission date corresponds to the date by which you must have finalized and sent your project statement signed by all partners. This document will be forwarded to the MEDTEQ+ Scientific Committee for evaluation.

Additional information and clarifications may be requested by the Scientific Committee before issuing its final recommendation. Approved projects are then sent to the MEIE, which will analyze them and may request additional information before confirming funding. An award letter is then sent to the project team, who must sign a research agreement within a few months.