Northwestern Ontario’s New Accelerator Program
The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre (NOIC), in partnership with CRIBE and the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC), is pleased to announce the launch of its first accelerator program cohort under The Boreal Springboard. This broader initiative, inaugurated in Fall 2025, is designed to strengthen and diversify Northwestern Ontario’s forestry sector by supporting the commercialization of innovative, forest-based products and technologies.
The accelerator, having launched in March 2025, is a 12-week, intensive program that delivers targeted investment of resources and supports into innovative, early-stage companies. Eligible companies were those which propose to add efficiencies into the operations of incumbents in the sector, or to develop new forest-based products, markets, and applications that build out around our region’s core capacities, products, fibre supply, and residual streams.
For the inaugural cohort of the accelerator program, participating companies propose to bring both new products and new technologies to the region through the following initiatives:
- Commercializing an innovative process for producing platform chemicals from hardwood chips, targeting large end markets with applications across the food and beverage sector as well as heavy industry.
- Prototyping and modularizing advanced wood construction for a direct-to-consumer product designed for at-home assembly, leveraging local tree species and established manufacturing expertise.
- The development of a mass timber facility, manufacturing a product that strengthens the sector by increasing domestic demand for existing softwood lumber production and enhancing regional capacity for wood-based construction.
- Commercializing an advanced biomass-based diagnostic tool for the health sector, aimed at improving the management of known exposure risks in the mining and heavy industry workforce.
The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre is grateful for CRIBE’s support and leadership in this initiative, and we eagerly anticipate our second accelerator cohort in January, 2027.
If you know of a startup who you believe would be a good fit in our sector and region, please direct them to the expression of interest on our website at www.borealspringboard.ca.
Likewise, if you know of a company who is further along on their journey, and who would fit well in the Northwest, pleas consider referring them to us through our Soft Landing program, where we work to de-risk integration for new entrants.
