Mitacs Accelerate

• Accelerate proposal
• Conflict of Interest Declaration form

Who is eligible?

• For-profit corporations in Canada.
• Not-for-profit corporations, hospitals, municipalities, and Indigenous governments in Canada.
• Faculty at a Canadian academic institution who are eligible to hold Tri-Agency funds, as academic supervisors.
• Canadian citizens, permanent residents, international students with a student visa, and international postdoctoral fellows with a valid work permit, as interns.
• Registered students and postdoctoral fellows at Mitacs partner colleges and universities in Canada, with recent graduates, non-degree students, and visiting students or researchers potentially eligible at the Canadian institution’s discretion.

Who is not eligible

• Postdoctoral fellows who were employed full-time at the partner organization prior to applying.
• Interns who want to participate in more than one internship at the same time.
• Participants who hold another Mitacs internship or fellowship with overlapping dates.
• Part-time students applying for Accelerate internships that include international travel.

Eligible expenses

• Intern stipend or salary, with a minimum of $10,000 CAD per internship unit under the standard funding model.
• Research costs, with up to $5,000 CAD available per $15,000 CAD internship unit.
• For each $20,000 CAD postdoctoral internship unit, up to $5,000 CAD can be allocated to research expenses.
• Additional partner contributions for stipend or salary top-ups or direct internship costs such as specialized equipment, with academic institution approval.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Consulting proposals.
• Development projects.
• University tuition fees.
• Internships in which the intern is doing work they were previously doing as an employee or contractor.

• Whether the proposed project qualifies as research in its discipline and can make new contributions to the state of the art or solve an existing problem using novel techniques.
• Whether the proposed objectives are well-defined and reasonable for the research problem or question.
• Whether the methodology is well-defined, sufficiently detailed, and appropriate to achieve the objectives.
• Whether the work plan is feasible based on the proposed timeline and available resources.
• Whether the internship represents an appropriate learning and development opportunity for the intern, along with alignment to research security requirements, benefits to Canada, partner capacity, conflict of interest management, and Indigenous research expectations where applicable.

• Develop a research project with the academic and partner participants.
• Review the Mitacs Responsible Conduct of Research Policy, adjudication criteria, Writing Your Proposal guide, and other relevant Mitacs policies before writing the proposal.
• Contact a Mitacs Advisor before initiating an Accelerate application and to determine which application platform to use.
• Proceed with the application route identified by the Mitacs Advisor; eligible new applications may go through Mitacs Plus.

• Applications are peer reviewed by at least two external experts, which takes approximately six to eight weeks; proposals with multiple internships or that require revisions may take longer.
• An application may be returned with a request for revisions before it is approved.
• Following submission, partner organizations receive an invoice; no funds are released to the academic institution until the invoice has been paid and the proposal is approved.
• Once an outcome is available, Mitacs contacts all participants with the decision and applicable instructions.
• Following formal approval and receipt of the partner contribution, Mitacs forwards the Accelerate funds to the academic institution; no work should begin until an Award Letter has been issued and funds have been distributed to the institution.

• Applications can be submitted in English or French.
• Interaction with the partner organization may take place on site, virtually, or in a hybrid format, and Mitacs expects high-quality interaction and supervision in all cases.
• Projects involving or impacting Indigenous communities must address community support, collaborative practices, access and use of data, and team experience under the Mitacs Indigenous Research Policy.
• Projects should start within one year of the receipt of research approval; end dates can be extended by one year past the original projected end date, and incomplete internships beyond that period may be subject to cancellation.