SPARK Alberta

SPARK Alberta supports the advancement of digital health innovations at Alberta’s post-secondary institutions into clinical impact. We provide industry advice, education, and life science ecosystem connections to faculty, researchers, and graduate students for up to one year in our hybrid program format.  

Clinical impact is the key driver of SPARK, where we aim to bridge science and clinical practice via industry perspective and strategies to ensure that important ideas and discoveries make it into practice to benefit patients. Together, with the mentorship of our digital health industry expert advisors, we work with you to validate your academic-born project’s commercial and/or implementation potential, to de-risk it for the attraction of industry and investors. 

We are located at the W21C Research & Innovation Centre, funded by Alberta Innovates, and supported by a wide range of program partners. 

We support our teams in three ways:

Time commitment: up to 5 hours/month for up to one year, and includes a combination of project update presentations, monthly meetings, homework, and educational opportunities. We take a break for the winter and summer holidays.

Project update presentations typically take place on Wednesday evenings, and monthly meetings are scheduled during normal business hours. The program format is currently hybrid, with options for in-person attendance at W21C or remote attendance over Zoom.

In order to protect the confidentiality of our projects, all attendees to the project update presentations must sign a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA).

• Novel approach to an unmet clinical need using a digital health solution. Digital Health refers to any tool or service utilizing software, applications, and other digital means to solve a health or healthcare related problem. 
• Based at an Alberta post-secondary institution. This means that the project must be lead by current faculty, researcher, staff, or students at an Alberta post-secondary institution. 
• Evidence-backed early–stage innovation. Early-stage as in your are in the process of designing, developing, or already testing your Minimum Viable Product (the earliest version of your technology). Evidence-backed as in there is literature and/or studies to back your innovation and at least some validation from stakeholder interviews.
• You have a development plan and end-goal in mind. 
• You have a history of commitment to your project. 
• Priority is given to innovations that specifically seek to improve the lives of equity-deserving populations. 

The goal of SPARK is to advance evidence-based digital health innovations to increase their chance of impact for patients in clinical and community settings. We respect that each participant’s pathway and the barriers they face in the innovation ecosystem are unique. Therefore, each innovator’s journey and program outcomes will look different. As part of your application, you will map out your desired pathway and we will work with you to achieve those goals.

Applications for our Fall 2025 cohort are now closed. Spring 2026 applications will open in February 2026.

For any questions, please reach out to spark@ucalgary.ca

The W21C Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Calgary is home to SPARK Alberta. SPARK falls within W21C’s digital health strategy and aligns with its overall mandate to make care better for our communities.

SPARK is also supported by our close collaborators, Innovate Calgary, the SPARK Global network, and our provincial advisory committee.