SCI Innovation Programs

• Program runs from October 2025 to April 2026 (6 months).
• Virtual program based in Vancouver, BC.
• Up to $30K CAD in targeted support with key objectives and deliverables set during the program, pending Praxis receiving funding for these purposes.
• Cohort of maximum five companies accepted.
• Companies with a clear medical application to SCI care- or cure-related treatments required, but not limited to only SCI.

Early Bird Application: August 27, 2025

Applications Closed: September 10, 2025

Notice of decision: October 2025

Program runs: October 2025 – April 2026

Our criteria for accepting companies for this program includes:

• Demonstrated application that impacts SCI outcomes (functional mobility, neuro-restoration, secondary complications (i.e bladder and bowel complications, neuropathic pain, pressure injuries) or overall quality of life).
• MVP completed, TRL 7 (TRL 5+ considered).
• One minimum full-time founder.
• Legally incorporated or planning to incorporate in Canada.
• Existing traction or target to reach traction in the next 12 months (e.g. planned pilots or sales pipeline).

Submission Requirements

• Complete the application form
• Product Presentation / Pitch Deck: A 5–10 slide overview outlining your product and progress to date.
• Product Video: A 2-minute (or longer) video describing the product. An informal recording of the founder explaining the product is sufficient.

• Business Plan (2-5 pages): Your business plan should include the following:

•  Intended impact on SCI patients (patients served, type of impact, significance of impact)
•  Description of the solution
•  Competitor analysis (what is unique about your solution)
•  Financial statement and sales forecast
•  Marketing/customer acquisition strategy
•  Exit strategy
•  Product roadmap
•  Capital plan and raise
•  Company team

All applications must be submitted through the online portal. Click Apply Now below to access the application form.

• File requirements: Business plans and pitch decks must be under 15MB and uploaded directly to the portal.
• Video submission: Please include a secure YouTube or other hosting link to your product video.
• If you experience any issues uploading files, you may email attachments (within size limits, except for videos) directly to innovation@praxisinstitute.org.
• For confirmation or questions regarding your submission, please contact innovation@praxisinstitute.org.

Review and Selection

Applications will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary panel including:

• SCI researchers
• Clinical leaders
• Persons with lived experience (PLEX)
• Commercialization experts
• Mentor-advisors with healthcare investment experience

Shortlisted applicants will take part in a one-hour interview with our panel of experts. Semi-finalist applicants will then move on a 2nd round of interviews.

If you apply to the Praxis SCI Accelerate Program, we will collect personal information about you, information relating to your company, and why you are applying for the program. We use this information for the purposes of processing and responding to your application, including assessing the suitability of your company for acceptance into the program. If you provide us with personal information about any other individual (such as your co-founder(s) or partner(s)), you confirm that you have obtained the consent of such individual(s) prior to providing any personal information to us.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the personal information we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your privacy rights, please do not hesitate to contact us at tray@praxisinstitute.org.

For general questions pertaining to the Praxis SCI Accelerate Program, please email innovation@praxisinstitute.org.

Hans Keirstead, AIVITA Biomedical (Lead Mentor) 

Dr. Keirstead is the Chairman and CEO of AIVITA Biomedical, and an internationally known stem cell expert and serial entrepreneur who has led therapy development for cancer, immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury and retinal diseases. He has founded four successful biotechnology companies and holds Board positions in several prominent biotechnology companies. Dr. Keirstead was a full Professor at the University of California, Irvine where he founded, directed and erected a building for the UCI Stem Cell Research Center. He was a founding advisor of the California Stem Cell Initiative that resulted in a $3 billion stem cell fund (CIRM). Dr. Keirstead received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia,  and received the Cameron Award for outstanding PhD thesis. He has been a long-time advisor to several governments on biomedical policy and received the distinct honor of election as Senate Member of the University of Cambridge and Fellow of the Governing Body of Downing College, being the youngest member to have been elected to those positions.

Gabe Kalmar (Entrepreneur-In-Residence) 

Dr. Kalmar spent 12 years supporting the strategic goals for Genome BC. He has taken on roles as the Executive Director of Operations, Vice President of Sector Development, and Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. He is a mentor at Creative Destruction Labs, Entrepreneur in Residence for entrepreneurship@UBC and Innovation Boulevard, and is also on the board of companies including MRMProteomics and HeadCheck Health. Dr. Kalmar holds a BSc in Biochemistry and MSc in Virology from the University of British Columbia, and received his PhD in Virology from Simon Fraser University.

Roger Flowerdew 

Mr. Flowerdew CPA, CA has provided interim and full-time executive level services to life science, information technology, specialty manufacturing (extraction, isolation and purification of high value compounds for bio-tech clients) companies in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom since 1986. Roger’s areas of expertise are strategic and tactical planning, tactical implementation, business development and corporate finance.  He has also served as a director and board chair (Northern Lipids Inc. and Chromos Molecular Systems Inc.), CEO (Cognetix Inc.), COO, VP Business Development, Managing Director – European Operations and CFO/Director Finance (Incisive Genetics Inc.) of various listed public and unlisted companies and not-for-profit organizations (Pacific Salmon Foundation, Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund Society, Vancouver Opera Association, Vancouver Opera Foundation). He obtained his Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, from Simon Fraser University in May 1980 and his Chartered Accountant designation with Thorne Riddell (now KPMG Canada) in December 1982.

Lahav Gil 

Lahav Gil is a MedTech entrepreneur, angel investor and a Venture Partner at Zoic Capital. Lahav works with medical device startups on technology development, innovation culture, operations and commercialization strategies. Lahav began his career as an industrial designer in the late 80s. He has over three decades of experience as a founder, innovator, entrepreneur, executive and investor, mostly in the MedTech space. Over that time, Lahav has contributed to the development and launch of over 200 technology products. He has founded several companies and sold two. Most notably, he founded Kangaroo Group (ISO 13485) and spent fifteen years building it into a major Canadian brand for MedTech innovation, contract manufacturing and MedTech startup acceleration. In 2017, Lahav sold Kangaroo to its chief competitor, Starfish Medical.

David Granville, VCHRI 

Dr. Granville brings with him a wealth of experience in research, innovation and commercialization. He is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also a scholar of the Royal Society of Canada and former Canada Research Chair and Canada Top 40 Under 40 recipient. His recent research has led to the formation of the UBC-spin-off company, viDA Therapeutics of which he is a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Granville previously worked at QLT, where his R&D studies supported the approval of Visudyne® to be used as the first treatment for macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. In 1999, Visudyne® was approved by the FDA—the largest ophthalmic product release in history.

Jordan Gutierrez 

Jordan is the COO of Wishpond, a B2B business that builds complete marketing funnels that get leads and customers for eCommerce businesses. He started his business career on the streets of Mexico City and has now helped Wishpond grow into a 120 person company. Jordan now focuses on the operations of Wishpond and most importantly, pivoting to the wants of its customers to continue to provide the products and services they need to grow their own businesses. Jordan also started laleo.com, the largest medical ecommerce site in Mexico.

Jennifer Hamilton 

Biotechnology-focused PhD scientist with 25+ years experience in working for global venture capital firms, big Pharma, and independent biotechnology companies. Clients include pharma, medical device companies, venture capital, institutional investors and biotechnology companies in areas of Strategic Review, Business Development and Search & Evaluation including numerous BOD roles. Interests also include global health-care impact investing.

Jennifer has an MSc and a PhD in Experimental Pathology/Lipid Metabolism from the University of British Columbia and a BSc from the University of Guelph.

Phil Mundy 

Phil is a deeply experienced entrepreneur and executive in the healthcare, home medical and assistive device space. He has led over 3 successful startups, serves as the Executive Director of the Home Medical Equipment Dealers Association of BC, has led product engineering for a number of devices and currently leads the development of a number of different products in the industry. 

Yasmine Roulleau 

Yasmine is a highly accomplished business executive with a 15-year track record in corporate strategy and acquisitions. She is known for her ability to create major growth strategies through new market penetration and industry roll-ups.
As a business strategist in the healthcare, gaming and technology industries, her expertise includes capacity building, P3 partnerships, and commercialization of data including intellectual property royalties and knowledge translation. Yasmine is credited as a visionary for the growth and evolution of the healthcare industry in Canada as evidenced by accolades from the Healthcare Leaders of Canada and the Certified Health Executives (CHE). Her clients include BC Children’s Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital, the Ministry of Health among several private healthcare companies.

Allyson Tighe, Amplitude Ventures 

Allyson is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and community builder. She is a co-founder of Amplitude Ventures and previous investor at the BDC Healthcare Fund. She brings an extensive background as a former medical device entrepreneur and biotechnology commercialization advisor passionate about creating, building, and growing world class healthcare companies in Canada and also serves as a mentor at Creative Destruction Labs. In addition, Allyson’s research and early career was focused on spinal cord injury, ranging from basic science to rehabilitation and quality of life.

Elise Huisman 

Elise has a passion for creating better access to healthcare and this has led her to her current role as Sr. Principle Scientist at Medtronic. Her education is in Biomedical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, after which she moved to Vancouver, to be closer to the mountains and did her PhD at UBC in Rehabilitation Sciences.

Then she co-founded Arbutus Medical, a medical device company specializing in affordable orthopedic power tools, she specialized in business development, sales and product management. After working in a hardware product focused environment, she felt it was time to branch out to digital health, and worked in 2 start-ups HealthQb and XCO. HealthQb is focused on treating chronic pain more effectively, while XCO’s goal is creating a patch that measures vitals wirelessly. While wearing multiple hats in a start-up environment, she primarily focused on business development and product management. As Medtronic had been a company that was a great example during her time at Arbutus Medical, Elise jumped on the opportunity to join them in 2022. As she tremendously valued mentorship when she was in a start-up, Elise provides mentorship to start-ups currently.

Shannyn A. Smith 

Over 20 years ago, Shannyn launched her career in NYC advertising agencies, successfully growing medical education business units. She led the strategic communications, in partnership with Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, for a drug approved by the FDA to treat spasticity.

At Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Shannyn was named “Marketer of the Year” and recognized by PM360 ELITE (• Exceptional • Leaders • Innovators • Transformers • Entrepreneurs) as one of the most influential people in the healthcare industry. She is an Innovator in Residence at the MIT Innovation Initiative, on the Leadership Team for MIT Solve: Indigenous Communities Fellowship, a Judge for the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge, and a Mentor for Startups Ignite. Advancing women has been a hallmark of her career as a leader, manager, and mentor. An indigenous woman of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, she has a personal mission to advance women of color and indigenous women. Shannyn earned her Executive MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and my AB, cum laude, from Harvard University in molecular biology