Accelerate Program Grant

Accelerate Program Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Mitacs
Amount: Up to C $20,000
Last Updated: March 05, 2026

Summary

The Mitacs Accelerate Program offers students and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to engage in scalable internships with partner organizations, enhancing their professional networks and gaining hands-on research experience. Participants can apply their academic knowledge to real-world projects, with internships lasting from four to six months. Funding starts at $10,000 for a four-month period, allowing individuals from diverse disciplines to contribute to impactful research initiatives while receiving competitive stipends.

Overview

Note: Effective December 15, 2025, the Internship Unit (IU) cap for the Indigenous Pathways initiative will increase from 12 to 30 IUs per submission year for each Indigenous partner organization. This gives partners more flexibility when accessing talent to meet their research and development project needs. No work should begin on a project until an Award Letter has been issued and funds have been distributed to the institution. 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. A key player and catalyzing force in Canada’s innovation ecosystem, we work with nearly 200 post-secondary institutions across the country and tens of thousands of partners nationally and globally. Mitacs Accelerate Program Drive innovation and collaboration with Mitacs Accelerate. This research-based internship program brings together post-secondary students, postdoctoral fellows, industry partners, and academic researchers to solve complex challenges and advance new ideas. By fostering applied research and knowledge transfer, Accelerate enables all stakeholders to achieve their goals—whether it’s developing cutting-edge solutions, exploring new markets, or commercializing research breakthroughs. Open to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, the program provides funding and flexibility to support projects starting at four months, with opportunities to scale. The Accelerate program aims to: Help businesses optimize their budgets, grow their R&D and tap into the expertise of highly skilled students, graduate students, recent grads and post-docs to solve your research challenges.Help students broaden their professional networks, tap into funding opportunities, and gain invaluable hands-on experience at for-profit and not-for-profit partner organizations seeking skilled research talent. Help professors build game-changing research partnerships with industry leaders, tap into flexible funding, and help drive the innovation of tomorrow. Funding Our standard funding model requires a partner contribution starting at $7,500 CAD per internship (4 or 6 months) which results in a $15,000 CAD research award. Of this award, the intern must receive a minimum $10,000 CAD stipend or salary. Our Postdoctoral researcher funding model requires a contribution of $10,000 CAD per internship (4 or 6 months) which results in a $20,000 CAD research award. This funding model is only available to postdoctoral interns. Further, all parties must declare any potential conflicts of interest upon application submission, including: An academic supervisor in a position of ownership, employment or influence over operations at the partner organization. An intern is in a position of ownership, employment or influence over operations at the partner organization. Programs participants with a close family relationship with each other, or with someone in a position of ownership employment or influence at the 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. Project Extension Mitacs project extensions are now available to Accelerate 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 (see above). For project extension, completed forms should be submitted to your local Mitacs Advisor for revision and official submission to Mitacs for evaluation.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Academic supervisorsAcademic supervisors are eligible if they are faculty at a Canadian academic institution who are eligible to hold Tri-Agency funds. Partner organizationsPartner organizations can be for-profit corporations (must receive more than 50% of their funds from non-government sources), eligible not-for-profit corporations, municipalities, or 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.(Eligibility can be confirmed with a Mitacs Advisor.) Intern

An intern can be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, international student with a student visa, or international postdoctoral fellow with a valid work permit. Interns must be 18 years old or over, and fall into one of the following categories:Registered 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 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 interns 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.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 dateInterns may not participate in more than one internship at the same time.