The Queen's Innovation Centre Summer Initiative (QICSI) is a 16-week summer incubator program for aspiring entrepreneurs to receive the training, mentorship, funding, and resources to launch a business venture. Build2Scale Health is a health-sector specific stream of the program that enables solutions to unmet needs in healthcare.

The 2023 cohort started May 2023. Here's a look at what some of the ventures in the program are building!

In the annual Dunin-Deshpande Summer Pitch Competition, teams have the opportunity to compete for Kingston's largest prize pool. The competition provides post-secondary students and members of the Kingston community with an opportunity to advance their early-stage venture through non-dilutive funding and mentorship.

Reitumetse Kholumo, a 25-year-old entrepreneur and chemical engineering student and Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship 2022 Alumni, is on a mission to empower South African traditional beer makers and promote indigenous knowledge systems. Her company, Kwela Brews, aims to address the challenges faced by women who brew traditional African beer, such as inconsistent buyers and competition from low-cost alternatives. Kwela Brews acts as a distributor, paying the women for their brews and supplying them with ingredients.

A brand new makerspace course is launching at Queen's University. ENIN 250, Makerspaces and the Creative and Innovative Process, is designed to empower students with the mindset and skillset of an innovator, focusing on the principles of design thinking and the potential of the maker movement to create social impacts.

A QYourVenture company co-founded by researchers in the Eye Movement Lab at the Faculty of Health Sciences were selected for the INOVAIT Pilot Fund to advance their startup venture, Dynamiris.

DDQIC joined Undergraduate Recruitment on visits to high schools in key recruitment markets in Spring 2023 to deliver Design Thinking workshops and micro-credentials to youth. Design Thinking is a problem-solving methodology leveraged by Forbes 500 companies and entrepreneurs to develop innovative products, services, and impactful solutions. The Queen’s micro-credential enhances students' career resumes and complements their applications to post-secondary.

Our quarterly updates are packed with founder success stories and news on DDQIC events and programs. To learn more about our alumni and the future of programs like Build2Scale Health, visit the link below for more details. 

Here's a look at this month's issue: