Early Stage Project Grants for Individuals or Companies (Canada)

The Early Stage Project Grant program assists with third-party costs incurred during the initial planning phase of a project.

Funding Information 

Applicants can apply for funding of 75% of the costs, up to a maximum grant of $3,500.

Eligible Costs (maximum funding of up to 75% of total costs)

• Option fees
• Acquisition or licensing fees
• Research fees
• Screenwriting fees
• Story editors/story consultants
• Grant writers and other funding proposal prep assistance (for non-ESIO programs)
• Script breakdown/budgeting costs
• Audience testing/focus groups
• Preliminary market study
• Technology infrastructure (hardware, software)
• Contracts for project-specific teams (for example, writer, researcher, designer, graphic artist/illustrator, programmer, composing and audio work, project manager, business development, coding, design, system infrastructure, content development)
• Expenses to put content online, including copyright clearance, documentation, design and development of the prototype, versioning
• Video demos/sizzle reels/trailers
• Legal fees
• Stock images or footage
• Character art and artists

Eligible Projects

• Eligible projects must:
  • be 100%-owned, -controlled or -optioned by the applicant; and,
  • not have received previous funding from the ESIO.
• Initiatives that are outside of the day-to-day operations of an applicant will receive priority for funding.

Eligibility Criteria

• Early Stage Project Grants are available to:
  • enterprises with a principal office in the Edmonton metro region that have been resident and operational for a minimum of one year; or,
  • individuals with professional screen media content creation experience or expertise who have been resident in the Edmonton metro region for a minimum of one year.
• Applicants must be in good standing with the ESIO and the City of Edmonton.

For more information, visit ESIO.