The Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Competitiveness (AMIC) program provides financial support to advanced manufacturing companies with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Ontario.
This program has announced its fourth intake period, which opened on July 20, and closes on August 31, 2023.
AMIC offers both grants and interest-free loans to successful applicants with a maximum amount of $1.5 million in grants for successful applicants and a maximum of $5 million in no-interest loans. Both the grant and loan funding will cover a maximum of 15% towards a project’s overall costs.
Program Snapshot: Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Competitiveness (AMIC)
The AMIC program is a recent addition to the Regional Development Program (RDP) that aims to help Ontario SMEs take on new growth projects that they may not have financial capacity for without the help of government funding. The qualifications to be eligible for this program are shown below.
Funding Amount
Successful applicants may receive the following funding contributions:
- Grants: Access up to 15% of eligible project costs to a maximum of $500,000 for small companies and $1.5 million.
- Loans: Access up to 15% of eligible project costs to a maximum of an interest-free $5 million loan (up to four years);
- Should the company achieve their investment or upskilling targets, a portion of the loan (up to 30%) may be forgiven.
Eligible Applicants
For your advanced manufacturing business to be eligible for funding via AMIC, your organization must be in Ontario and meet these criteria:
- Applicants are in an advanced manufacturing sector such as:
- Aerospace;
- Automotive;
- Chemical;
- ICT;
- Steel; and
- Life Sciences.
- Applicants must have a minimum of three years of financial statements;
- Applicants must have 10 employees or more;
- Applicants must commit to creating or upskilling a minimum of five new or current jobs;
- Applicants must be investing a minimum of $500K in the project; and
- Applicants must be located in, or plan to be in, a community in Ontario.
Eligible Activities
Projects that are eligible to receive grant or loan funding through the AMIC program include one or more of the following project types:
- Creating jobs in Ontario and build Ontario’s talent pool;
- Acquiring capital equipment;
- Adopting technology;
- Developing workforce skills;
- Driving innovation and cluster development;
- Helping Ontario manufacturing companies adopt new technologies to improve outputs and competitiveness on a global scale;
- Attracting private sector investments; and
- Stimulating Ontario’s economy and increasing sector growth.
Apply for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Competitiveness (AMIC) Funding
We strongly recommend applying for this program early as it is an extremely popular program for advanced manufacturing businesses. The second round of funding will close on August 31, 2023. If your business would like assistance in writing AMIC applications, consider speaking with the team of government grant and loan application writers at Mentor Works, a Ryan company to find out if your business is eligible for funding and how we can help take care of the application process on behalf of your business.
To find out more about Canadian federal and provincial government funding programs, please attend a free government funding event to ask questions about these programs and learn about new programs your business may be eligible for.