Early Stage Commercialization Fund: 2025-2026 Funded Projects

Invest Nova Scotia’s Early Stage Commercialization Fund (ESCF) helps move Nova Scotia university, college and university-affiliated hospital research to market. In 2025-2026, we were pleased to team up again with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to support ESCF projects focused on technologies that reduce carbon emissions (we've noted that project below).

Below is a list of the 2025-2026 funded projects.

Winter 2026 Round

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

Researchers: Michael Freund and Kamal Elsankary  
Project: Microchips that give machines a human-like sense of smell.

Researcher: Paola Marcato  
Project: Immunotherapy for cancer treatment.

Researcher: Mita Dasog  
Project: Technology to enable hydrogen-on-demand.* 
* ESCF funding matched by DNR

Researchers: Dr. Alan A. Doucette and Dr. Mohsen Kompany-Zareh 
Project: Portable detection of blood-thinners.

Researchers: Dmitry Trukhachev and Kamal Elsankary  
Project: Ultra-fast, low-power semi-conductors for data centres.  

Interested in learning how ESCF could help your business? Connect with us today.