Business
Accelerate
Optimize your budget, grow your R&D, and tap into the expertise of highly skilled students, graduate students, recent grads, and postdocs to solve your research challenges and achieve your innovation goals. Open to for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, the program pairs partner organizations with top-level research talent, who can help achieve business and innovation goals, execute initiatives, identify new markets, commercialize results, and more. Projects start at four months in duration and can be scaled up as needed.
Program Details
- Apply anytime
- Six- to eight-week peer review
- College students can do 3 four-to-six month internships, master’s students can do up to 6 four-to-six month internships, PhD students can do up to 12, and postdocs can do up to 9. While undergraduates, other university students (ex. diploma programs), and recent graduates can do up to 3 four-to-six month internships.
- The Mitacs Accelerate Fellowship supports longer-term projects for master’s and PhD students
- Internships start at four months
- Interns interact with both their academic supervisor and partner organization during the project
- Submit an exit survey summarizing project results and experiences
- Follow the Accelerate Code of Conduct
- Apply your skills in a non-academic environment
- Broaden your professional network
- Get a stipend/salary starting at $10,000 per four-month period
- Build out your CV with peer-reviewed research
- International collaboration options available
Funding
Partner contribution starts at $7,500 per internship unit (4-6 months), which results in a $15,000 research award. Of the $15,000 award, the intern will receive a minimum $10,000 stipend/salary.
If a project has 6 or more internship units with 3 or more interns, it is possible for the partner organization to contribute $6,000 per internship unit instead. This will receive a $13,333 research award with a $10,000 minimum stipend to the intern.
Eligibility
- Students and postdoctoral fellows at Mitacs partner colleges and universities in Canada. Postdoctoral fellows are eligible if the date of graduation from a PhD program is less than five years to the proposed start date of the project. Exceptions are available for extenuating circumstances such as parental leave or military service. Fellows must not have been employed full-time at the partner organization prior to applying.
- Recent graduates (must be within two years of graduation at the start of their project), and non-degree students (diploma, certificate, etc) are eligible at the academic institution’s discretion. (Any interested applicants should check with their institution to first determine whether they are able to support other types of university students before drafting an application.)
- Visiting students and researchers at Canadian academic institutions who are completing a degree at a university abroad may also be eligible at the discretion of the Canadian institution.
- Interns who meet the criteria above (students, postdoctoral fellows and recent grads) may be Canadian citizens, permanent residents, international students (with a student visa), or international postdoctoral fellows (with a valid work permit). Interns must be 18 years old or over.
- All academic disciplines
- For-profit corporations and eligible not-for-profit corporations, municipalities, and hospitals in Canada
- For-profit businesses and not-for-profit corporations operating outside of Canada are eligible as additional partners on projects with a Canadian partner organization.
- Interns may interact remotely with an international partner organization and/or travel to interact in person.
- Any travel must be in accordance with their Canadian academic institution’s policies on international travel.
How to Apply
- Review the following information when you begin writing your proposal:
- Mitacs Responsible Conduct of Research Policy (to be found under “Mitacs Terms, Conditions & Policies”, including information on eligible research)
- Adjudication criteria (see at the bottom of this page under “Program Administration”)
- Writing Your Proposal guide (under “Application”)
- Other policies if applicable (including Mitacs Indigenous Research Policy, Research Security Plan, etc)
2. Get feedback on the proposal from all participants and your Mitacs Advisor
3. Determine the right application process for your project (information below)
Please note that for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, running from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 there is limited funding available for Accelerate in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
For further details and before initiating an Accelerate application in the respective provinces, please contact your Mitacs Advisor
Proposals from British Columbia, Yukon, Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are not subject to restrictions.
The Indigenous Pathways initiative is now at full capacity for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The initiative is closed and will reopen in April 2025 with updated eligibility criteria. For questions or concerns please contact your Mitacs advisor.
NEW: Accelerate is going digital!
We are thrilled to announce that Mitacs is launching an online application portal for our Accelerate program. This application portal is a first step towards digitizing our entire application process, by phasing out our paper applications and leveraging digital tools to further enhance your application experience.
To see if your project is a good fit for the digital process, please review the criteria below. Program outcomes, requirements, and Award values remain the same in each application process.
To be eligible for the new digital process, your project must:
- Use one, or a combination of the following Award values:
- $10,000 Standard Award (1:1)
- $15,000 Standard Award (1:1)
- $13,333 Cluster Funding (1:1.2) (Eligibility: 3 or more unique interns, and a minimum of 6 internship units)
- Not be joint funded.
- Have no known COIs at the point of application.
Please note the digital option cannot yet accommodate Indigenous Pathways and Masters and PhD Fellowship Award values at this time, or any joint-funded application. We strive to enable these in the digital application as soon as possible. Additional conditions to eligibility may apply.
Does your project seem like a good fit? Please follow the application steps below, otherwise please follow the steps under “Accelerate (Non-Digital Process)”.
Steps to apply using the digital process:
Step 1: Click here to download the Accelerate application for the digital process.
Step 2: Apply on the Accelerate Registration and Application Portal (RAP)
Accelerate (Non-Digital Process)
The Accelerate Program is incrementally transitioning to a digital application process. To see if your project is a good fit for the digital process, please review the Accelerate Digital Application Process option above. Program outcomes, requirements, and Award values remain the same in each application process.
Steps to apply using the non-digital process:
Step 1: Download the Accelerate application for the non-digital process. These can be downloaded in the “Application” section below.
Step 2: Collect all required signatures: intern(s), professor(s), partner contact, and university Office of Research Services or equivalent
Step 3: Email your proposal package to your Mitacs Advisor
PROPOSAL PACKAGE
- Accelerate proposal (under Applications). Please note that only the latest version of the Mitacs Accelerate template proposal will be accepted.
- Intern CV located under Applications (interns may use Mitacs’s optional template)
Please be sure to include supporting documents as required by your university or province.
What happens next
- Peer review of your proposal will take approximately six to eight weeks. Proposals with multiple internships or that require revisions may take longer.
- Partner organizations will receive an invoice (refundable if not approved), so that the intern receives payment when the project begins
- Mitacs will contact all participants with the outcome and applicable instructions.
- Mitacs forwards the Accelerate funds to the academic institution upon receipt of the partner contribution and the proposal’s approval
Application timeline
Questions? Consult the FAQ or reach out to accelerate@mitacs.ca
Additional resources for partner organizations:
TAX CREDITS FOR YOUR R&D
HOW ACCELERATE HELPS COMPANIES
View our industry-survey infographic
Program Administration
Mitacs invoices a partner organization upon submission of their Accelerate proposal. Upon receipt of the partner’s contribution, Mitacs forwards the research award to the Canadian academic institution. No funds will be released to the academic institution until the invoice has been paid and the proposal is approved. Mitacs has no control over when funds are administered by the academic institution. If you have questions about your Accelerate award after Mitacs has released funds, contact your academic institution’s Office of Research Services (or equivalent).
Mitacs’ policy is to take no position and claims no intellectual property (IP) from projects it funds. All Mitacs Accelerate participants are bound by the IP terms of the academic institution where the intern is enrolled. IP is left to be shared between the academic institution, its researchers, and the partner organization, according to the IP rules of the academic institution, unless a separate agreement is negotiated.
The following universities have developed their own IP terms for Mitacs projects:
- Brock University
- Concordia University
- McGill University
- Simon Fraser University
- University of Alberta
- University of Calgary
- University of Ottawa
- University of Victoria
Note that these IP agreements may not apply to joint applications with other funding organizations.
External reviewers for internship proposals receive the following questions to guide their assessment of the proposal:
- Mitacs Accelerate supports research-based internships. Does the proposed project qualify as research in its discipline?
- Is the project appropriate for the academic degree level of the intern(s)?
- Are the objectives clear?
- Is the methodology appropriate to achieve the objectives?
- Is the timeline realistic?
- Other comments and suggestions for the applicants. For example, is there prior work that should be considered by the researchers?
- Confidential comments for Mitacs:
- Will the research work potentially have adverse effects on the environment? Do you recommend that an additional environmental impact review be conducted?
Proposals for large and long-term projects may sometimes involve significant technical or scientific uncertainties, complex project management plans, or highly structured intern recruitment, supervision, and training plans. In these situations, Mitacs reserves the right to hold a review meeting between applicants and reviewers to support the assessment of such proposals before arriving at a final funding decision. The need for such a review meeting will be determined as part of the review process, and applicants will be notified as soon as possible if a review meeting needs to be scheduled.
Responsibilities
The following steps outline the responsibilities of each Mitacs Accelerate participant before, during, and after their project. For projects with multiple internships, each intern is responsible for their individual steps.
Mitacs Accelerate Terms and Conditions outline participants’ responsibilities in further detail — each participant is expected to understand and adhere to the Terms and Conditions of the program.