Technology Development Initiatives Fund (TDIF)
Genome BC is launching the Technology Development Initiatives Fund (TDIF) in partnership with the Technology Development Platform. This new program will, with funding provided by the government of BC and others, catalyze or seed new technology development projects for the BC life sciences community.

The TDIF is a $400,000 pilot program with an initial investment of $200,000 provided by Genome BC through the Technology Development Platform at the University of British Columbia. The program is expected to support four projects a year up to $50,000 per project.
 
The program’s goals include:

• To provide the BC life sciences and health communities with novel technology and instrumentation in order to maximize their ability to carry out competitive research and treatment services;

• To fund proof-of-concept or pilot projects of new technologies that have a high probability of delivering a direct benefit to end-users within 1-2 years (commercialization); and,
• To foster the growth of technology development for life sciences in BC.

Some example areas of possible funding include:

• Proof-of-concept funding for research and development toward a novel medical device;
• Temporary support of researchers, entrepreneurs, or engineers to help initiate an ongoing technology development or commercialization project;
• Workshops or meetings intended to bring together the life sciences, clinical and engineering communities;
• Research toward a novel technology or improvement to an existing technology that would have a strong positive impact on BC’s life science research.

Projects funded through this program will be announced in the spring of 2011.