Tech Transfer Specialists & Universities
Collaboration on Turning Research into Impact
1
Mission Support
The SAIL Fund supports the three core missions of Canadian universities: research, teaching, and societal impact. It does this by supporting your spinouts in the earliest stages of getting research out of the lab. While the SAIL Fund does not require that you use the Simple Agreement for Innovation Licensing (SAIL) framework, we encourage it, and we can directly support adoption.
2
Smooth Tech Transfer and Respect of Institutional Policies
The SAIL Fund enables smoother technology transfer by providing startups with the early resources and support needed to progress responsibly toward impact. We respect institutional IP policies, collective agreements, and academic priorities, and work collaboratively with TTOs, rather than seeking to bypass or displace existing commercialization policies and processes.
3
A Proven Model
Operating with a proven venture philanthropy model, the SAIL Fund combines structured capital deployment with a public-benefit mandate that aligns with the mission of Canadian universities. The SAIL Fund shares the risks of the early stages of commercialization with you, and recycles its proceeds to support future research translation, entrepreneurial education, and ecosystem development.
4
Education and Mentorship
By supporting founder readiness and the pre-revenue stages of emerging technology development, the SAIL Fund helps TTOs increase the likelihood that licensed technologies achieve real-world use, enabling research outcomes to generate societal and economic impact. The SAIL Fund’s commitment to entrepreneurial education strengthens institutional capacity to deliver on their “third mission” by better preparing researchers to take their research beyond the lab.