Mitacs — Accelerate

For Canadian organizations facing complex research or innovation challenges, accessing the right expertise can be just as important as accessing capital. Mitacs Accelerate is designed to help businesses, startups, nonprofits, and larger enterprises tap into Canada’s postsecondary research talent while stretching their R&D dollars further. Through this national program, organizations collaborate directly with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and academic supervisors to tackle real-world projects that improve products, processes, or technologies.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all grant, Accelerate is built around flexible research internships that typically run four to six months and can be stacked or extended as a project evolves. Companies contribute a portion of the project cost, which is matched to create a larger research award, with most of the funding going directly toward the intern’s stipend or salary. Projects can scale from a single internship to multi-year initiatives worth up to several million dollars, making the program suitable for both early-stage experimentation and long-term R&D roadmaps. Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis, and approvals are often relatively quick compared to traditional research funding.

Because the program spans industries and provinces, it’s especially attractive to organizations looking to innovate without building an in-house research team from scratch. Understanding how to structure a project, budget contributions, and align with academic partners is key, and exploring the full program details can help determine if Mitacs Accelerate fits your innovation strategy.