If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing one your home recipes hit the shelves of your local supermarket, an opportunity to hit the ground running and take your work to market is opening up at Niagara College.

The college is receiving $50,000 from the Canadian government to fund services at its innovation centre where new food and beverages are tested before they become products available for sale.

Its Food & Beverage Innovation Centre is receiving the funding from the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program.

From there, small and medium-sized enterprises doing work in beverage production can qualify to work with the innovation centre, where they’ll have the help of staff, faculty, recent graduates and students in making their products market-ready.

Some of the steps involved in making a product market-ready at the innovation centre include prototyping, food safety guidance, testing and producing marketable products.

The target clients for this pilot include not just enterprises working with beverages, but also spoonable and pourable foods, including non-alcoholic, low alcohol, or alternative products (like plant-based and functional beverages like sports drinks).

Project intake is open until March 31 next year. The average project value will be between $12,500 to $15,000, comprised of $10,000  funding and industry cash. 

To be eligible, enterprises must be clients of the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program, referred by an Industrial Technology Advisor or Client Engagement Advisor.

Participants must pay an up-front service fee on average of $2,500 before work starts.

For more information or to connect with Niagara College’s Research & Innovation centre, visit ncinnovation.ca.