Accelerate Entrepreneur Grant

Note:

• Applicants should first connect with their local Mitacs Advisor to get your Accelerate Entrepreneur application started.

This gives partners more flexibility when accessing talent to meet their research and development project needs.
For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, running from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026 there is limited funding available for Accelerate and BSI in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario.
Mitacs
For more than 25 years, Mitacs has brought together academia, industry, government, and global partners to solve real-world problems, develop top talent, and grow the Canadian economy.
Grow your startup, develop the research or technology at its core, advance your professional skills, and get to market faster with Accelerate Entrepreneur, a flexible initiative open to student and postdoctoral entrepreneurs in any discipline. Accelerate Entrepreneur helps startups better optimize their budgets, and provides the financial support needed to pilot test, refine, and ultimately commercialize new technology, products or services through internships valued at $15,000 each.
Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur projects are limited to two (2) years in duration due to the fast-paced and quickly changing nature of research with start-ups. Participants are welcome to submit a continuation of the project in a new proposal for the remaining research work they would like to continue, but this must be discussed with your Mitacs Advisor,
We support growth where you need it
This program targets the stages in a start-up’s journey where big impacts can be made:

• Piloting and testing a new product, service or technologyIterating and improving on an existing product, service, or technology
• Making the most out of limited budgets
• Program Details

Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur funds student and postdoctoral entrepreneurs to achieve commercialization goals, and further develop the research or technology at the core of their start-up business.
Accelerate Entrepreneur is designed to support the unique needs of postdoctoral, undergraduate, graduate, and college student entrepreneurs. With the support of an approved incubator, Mitacs funding helps students and postdoctoral fellows build their professional entrepreneurial skills, with the goal of commercializing their incorporated start-up’s technology, product, or service through funded internships.
In short, Accelerate Entrepreneur pays students and postdoctoral fellows to grow their start-ups and get to market faster.
Student and postdoctoral entrepreneurs must hold ownership of their incorporated start-up, and hold responsibility for  the management and/or operations of the company.
Project Extension
Mitacs project extensions are now available to Accelerate Entrepreneur project holders who need more time to complete the objectives and deliverables as outlined in an approved Mitacs project. Though this streamlined application and adjudication process (with additional financial commitment from the partner organization), eligible applicants may extend the original project timeline by adding up to one internship unit (IU) per intern per project (to a maximum of 10 IUs per project). Project extensions can be used to overcome unexpected challenges, to incorporate additional scope, or to allow additional time to support implementation of results.
You are eligible to request an extension in your project if:

• At least 75% of your initial project is completed or your project has ended less than 4 months ago;
• The extension is requested to complete the initial objectives of the project;
• The extension request is for 1 internship unit per intern to a maximum of 10 internship units per project;
• The partner in the project will provide an additional contribution leverage by Mitacs with our standard funding model.
• For project extension, completed forms should be submitted to your local Mitacs Advisor for revision and official submission to Mitacs for evaluation.

Eligibility

The student and postdoctoral fellow eligibility for Accelerate Entrepreneur is similar to standard Accelerate. Students and post-doctoral fellows at Mitacs partner colleges and universities in Canada are eligible.
How many internships can one intern do?Post-secondary students are eligible for any number of internships at the discretion of their institution. Interns must be enrolled as a student at an eligible institution throughout the course of the internship and have time in their schedule to commit to the project.Postdoctoral fellows can do up to nine (9) four-month internships (up to three (3) years)Recent graduates can complete up to three (3) four-month internships within two years of their graduation date.Interns may not participate in more than one internship at the same time.
Additional eligibility criteria must be assessed for the start-up and the incubator partner for participating in a Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur project for your consideration:You need to be actively housed at an approved incubator facility for the duration of the proposed project. Don’t see your incubator on the list? Please reach out to your local Mitacs Advisor and explore the opportunity to have your incubator included on our list.Your proposed research project must further develop the research or technology at the core of your start-up businessNote that your start up will need to be incorporated to receive any funding, and you will need an academic supervisor at you’re academic institution who can hold and disburse the funding.

Ineligibility

Consulting firms, and full-time employees with no ownership or responsibility for  the company’s management and/or operations are not eligible for Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur funding.Note that sole proprietorships and LLPs (Limited Liability Partnership) are not incorporated and therefore are not eligible.