The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre (NOIC), in partnership with the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) and the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE), is pleased to announce the launch of its first accelerator program under The Boreal Springboard. This initiative, inaugurated in fall 2025, is designed to strengthen and diversify northwestern Ontario’s forestry sector by supporting the commercialization of innovative forest-based solutions. The accelerator is a 12-week, intensive program that delivers targeted investment of resources and supports into innovative early-stage companies. Participating companies are advancing new forest-based products and technologies that add value to the region’s abundant and sustainably managed forest resources. This value creation may be achieved through improved efficiencies for the operations of established incumbents in the sector, or through the development of new products, markets, and applications that build out around our core capacities, regional fibre supply, and residual streams.