MITACS was created in 1999 as a federally-funded Network of Centres of Excellence to harness the power of mathematical tools and methodologies in order to address the inherent complexity of modern industrial and societal problems for the benefit of all Canadians.

"Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology."

These words of Edward David, ex-President of Exxon R&D, attest to the immense contributions mathematics can make to our knowledge-based society. But this fact, already known to policy makers and industrial leaders, raises a major challenge: too many of Canada's economic and societal challenges can benefit from the power of mathematics and so priorities had to be established - priorities that had a profound influence on the  MITACS research program, and consequently on the research programs of dozens of Canadian scientists.

From the outset, MITACS' scientific leadership elected to focus on problems and mathematical solutions which addressed issues in the fastest growing sectors of the nation's economy. The research themes of MITACS directly address many of the priority sectors identified in the Canadian government's Innovation Strategy , and which reflects their high impact on Canada's economy.  MITACS therefore focused its energy on tackling problems in five key sectors:

Biomedical & Health
Environment & Natural Resources
Information Processing
Risk & Finance
Communication, Networks & Security

Past Themes

Between 1998 to 2004, MITACS focused its energy on tackling problems in five key sectors:

Biomedical Sector
Commercial & Industrial Sector
Information Technology Sector
Manufacturing Sector
Trade & Finance Sector