Canadian Light Source partners with Mitacs

Saskatoon, S.K., – The Canadian Light Source synchrotron has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mitacs, a national, not-for-profit organization that brings together academia, industry and the public sector, to develop cutting edge tools and technologies vital to Canada’s knowledge-based economy.

“We hope that this partnership will facilitate access to synchrotron research capacity for industry-academic collaborations,” said Jeff Cutler, CLS Director of Industrial Science, said, “We believe we can make valuable contributions to innovative research projects.”

The agreement will strengthen ties between the two entities, and will focus on jointly developing Mitacs projects and calls for proposals that generate research development and commercialization projects.

“This partnership between Mitacs and Canadian Light Source will bring the latest in academic knowledge and techniques to synchrotron science, helping solve complex research challenges,” said Duncan Phillips, Vice President, Strategic Enterprises, Mitacs.

“Through this collaboration, researchers will have the opportunity to work on projects that have the potential to grow Canadian companies, especially Western Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses along with locally-based multi-nationals.”

Several Mitacs programs will be used to foster the partnership including Mitacs Converge.  A pilot program, Converge aims to increase the innovation output of Canadian small and medium enterprises and multi-national sponsor companies. The program links multi-nationals with expert researchers at Canadian universities and provides matching funding and support towards subsequent research, development and commercialization projects.

About Mitacs:

Mitacs is a national, not-for-profit organization that develops the next generation of innovators with vital skills through a suite of unique research and training programs: Mitacs Accelerate, Elevate, Step, and Globalink. In partnership with companies, government and universities, Mitacs is supporting a new economy using Canada’s most valuable resource — its people. 

About the CLS:

The Canadian Light Source is Canada’s national centre for synchrotron research and a global centre of excellence in synchrotron science and its applications. Located on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, the CLS has hosted over 2,000 researchers from academic institutions, government, and industry from 10 provinces and 2 territories; delivered over 32,000 experimental shifts; received over 8,300 user visits; and provided a scientific service critical in over 1,000 scientific publications, since beginning operations in 2005.

Synchrotrons are used to probe the structure of matter and analyze a host of physical, chemical, geological and biological processes. Information obtained by scientists can be used to help design new drugs, examine the structure of surfaces in order to develop more effective motor oils, build more powerful computer chips, develop new materials for safer medical implants, and help clean up mining wastes, to name a few applications.