Quebec and Mitacs announce investment in industry-academic partnerships

Montreal, QC –Today, Jacques Daoust, Quebec Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Exports announced a new collaboration to support the province’s innovation agenda, with a $15 million investment.

The Ministry is launching several initiatives that will stimulate the creation of partnerships between researchers, small-to-medium enterprises, and not-for-profit organizations — in order to achieve innovation and R&D goals, encourage the use of patents or industrial design to protect innovations, and engage more innovation collaborations with young researchers.

In partnership with Mitacs, the Stages d’innovation en entreprise (“Innovation internships in a company”) initiative will provide Quebec companies and not-for-profit organizations with an affordable platform to access the specialized expertise of researchers. 

Building on Mitacs’ Accelerate and Elevate programs, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will perform internships that facilitate knowledge transfer between universities and organizations. At the same time, the programs will provide new experiential learning opportunities that increase students’ and postdocs’ employability and skill set.

Quote:

Eric Bosco, Chief Business Development and Partnerships Officer, Mitacs
“University researchers play a vital role in helping Quebec companies solve real challenges and develop new products, services, and technologies. Mitacs looks forward to building on our previous collaborations and fostering new ones to develop an innovation-based economy in Quebec.”

Quick facts:

• Mitacs is a national not-for-profit organization that develops the next generation of innovators with vital professional skills through unique research and training programs.
• Mitacs Accelerate connects companies with research-based universities through graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, who apply their specialized expertise to business challenges. In 2014–2015, Mitacs supported almost 3,200 Accelerate internships, including over 950 in Quebec.
• Mitacs Elevate is a competitive postdoctoral fellowship that offers customized professional development training targeted at new PhDs. In 2014–15, Mitacs Elevate supported 110 fellowships, 22 of which were based in Quebec.

Links:

For more information about Mitacs and our programs, visit www.mitacs.ca/newsroom.

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