The PEF will

• Provide project funding of up to $250,000 over 6 to 12 months. In exceptional cases, consideration may be given to a larger investment, subject to discussions with Medicine by Design during the proposal development process.
• Support the generation of pivotal proof-of-concept and/or validation data, enabling the first steps towards demonstrating therapeutic potential and/or technological utility.
• Support projects that are defined by clear, milestone-driven (clear go/no go) decision points over a 6 to 12 months period.
• Encourage projects that leverage co-investment from ecosystem partners and programs (e.g. Connaught Innovation Award, UHN Innovation Acceleration Fund, CCRM, TIAP/LAB150, industry partners, etc.).

Project activities can include but are not limited to:

• Generation of preclinical, pivotal in vivo efficacy and/or proof-of-concept data.
• Demonstration of a technology for a regenerative medicine application.
• Critical, pivotal experiments to support the early stages of target validation.
• Drug screening on a validated target.
• Demonstrating feasibility of cell manufacturing scale-up.