Strategic Opportunities Program (SOP)

The Next Generation of Jobs Fund (NGOJF) is the cornerstone of the government’s economic development strategy to stimulate economic growth and create a sustainable and globally competitive workplace for the next generation of workers.

NGOJF is a five-year $1.15 billion program to support job creation/retention in strategic areas of great potential for Ontario. The NGOJF program will:

• Create and sustain jobs for Ontarians;
• Lever private sector investment in Ontario;
• Improve competitiveness of Ontario businesses;
• Foster innovation;
• Support Ontario’s Go Green Plan.

The NGOJF has three program streams:

• Jobs and Investment Program
• Biopharmaceutical Investment Program
• Strategic Opportunities Program

Next Generation of Jobs Fund – Strategic Opportunities Program (SOP) Overview

Part of the Government of Ontario’s $1.15 billion Next Generation of Jobs Fund strategy, SOP is a 5-year discretionary, non-entitlement grant program that supports strategic, industry-led programs and projects in targeted areas of strength for Ontario.

The SOP will focus on “strategic opportunities” in the following sectors:

• Bio-economy and clean technologies;
• Advanced health technologies;
• Digital media and Information and Communications technologies (ICT).

What is a “Strategic Opportunity?”

An opportunity where:

• A large scale global market opportunity exists, coupled with a unique strategy to deal with the competition, or a niche global market opportunity where Ontario has significant capacity and little competition and;
• Ontario has a demonstrated competitive advantage such as strong private sector strengths including global market leadership, and globally competitive research strength.

Goals of the Strategic Opportunities Program:

To identify Ontario’s highest potential strategic opportunities and to ensure Ontario industry will:

• Lead sales and job growth;
• Lead technology development and commercialization for the long term;
• Capture or maintain significant global market share;
• Have sufficient scale and focus to position Ontario at the forefront of international research and commercialization.

These goals will be accomplished by making investments that:

• Align existing and future public and private investments with specific opportunities where Ontario can achieve global competitive leadership;
• Build strong industry-led collaborations that may involve companies, researchers, universities and not-for-profit organizations in Ontario on national and international levels;
• Turn leading-edge Ontario research and innovation into technologies, products and services which will achieve long-term global market success and create jobs in Ontario; and
• Become a “magnet” to attract world-class research talent and investors eager to invest in Ontario research and innovation, fast growing companies, technologies and products.

Process Overview - Strategic Opportunities Program

The SOP process is designed to identify strategic opportunities or specific “subsets” within the three focus areas where Ontario has or could develop a global competitive advantage, and to develop and implement a strategy to ensure Ontario is the global leader.

Successful projects will leverage existing and new industry-led consortia, and build beneficial collaborations across stakeholders - provincially, nationally and internationally.

The SOP investments will be:

• Based on market oriented or industry developed strategies (both existing and new);
• Focused on the identified strategic opportunities where Ontario has or could develop a global competitive advantage;
• Aligned with government priorities;
• Focused on the entire innovation “value chain” from the idea to the global marketplace; and
• Designed to support market oriented, industry-led commercialization projects, initiatives and services.

Identifying Strategic Opportunities

The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) will identify the highest priority strategic opportunities within each of the 3 focus areas and develop a high level strategy in each of the focus areas to steer investments under the SOP, and to help align other areas of government investment and policy.

Investing in Strategic Opportunities

Successful proposals will target the following goals, among others:

• Attract and retain top talent (including internationally recognized researchers, business leaders, post-graduate and post-doctoral students);
• Open up new opportunities for Canadian firms and researchers to access world-class equipment, facilities and research capacity;
• Create, grow and retain companies in Canada that are able to capture new markets with breakthrough innovations;
• Accelerate the commercialization of leading edge technologies, goods, services in priority areas where Ontario can significantly advance its competitive advantage;
• Attract investment (including foreign direct investment and venture).

Please refer to the program guidelines for further information on proposal and program requirements.  SOP is a discretionary non-entitlement program.  Even if a proposal meets all of the program’s objectives and criteria, the Government of Ontario is under no obligation to approve funding. All decisions to approve funding are at the sole discretion of the Ministry and decisions not to approve funding are final.

Strategic Opportunities Program – Investment Contributions

Successful proposals approved for funding under the program must have the following investment profile:

• A minimum total proposal size of $25M over 5 years.
• A minimum contribution of 30 percent total project / program costs by participating industry partners
• An Ontario contribution through the Ministry of Research and Innovation of 25 percent of the total eligible project / program costs.

Open for Business

To accelerate existing activities, industry-led consortia have the option to submit a full SOP Proposal at any time during the process subject to program changes or prior full allocation of program funding.  The full process is detailed in the SOP Program Guidelines.

If an industry-led consortium is planning to submit a proposal, please complete the SOP Inquiry Form and email the completed form to MRI at strategicopportunities@ontario.ca. A representative from the Ministry will contact you within 48 hours.

If you have questions regarding the Strategic Opportunities Program, please contact the Ministry of Research and Innovation as follows:

CONTACT 

Strategic Opportunities Program
11th Floor, 56 Wellesley St. W.
Toronto, ON  M7A 2E7
Phone: 416-314-2525
E-mail: strategicopportunities@ontario.ca

North America:	Phone: 1-800-819-8701 E-Mail: info@2ontario.com
U.K. and Europe:	00-800-46-68-27-46
Japan (ITJ):	00-800-46-68-27-46
Japan (KDD):	0061-800-46-68-27-46