Dear Mitacs Partners, Supporters and Friends,
In light of COVID-19, I sincerely hope all of you and your families are keeping well.
Prior to beginning as CEO of Mitacs six weeks ago, I never would’ve imagined that I’d be addressing you under these circumstances, yet here we are.
At this very serious time, our focus at Mitacs is on our people - our staff, our student interns, and the professors, the project supervisors, and our partners. To keep people safe and healthy, Mitacs staff are working from home, and we are encouraging our interns to work from home as much as possible.
As keeping people safe and healthy is paramount, we have found it necessary to make changes to some of our programs. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the summer 2020 Globalink Research Internship program, which brings top international undergraduate students to Canada. Likewise, for student interns and fellows and supervisors in our other programs, individuals are affected by COVID-19 restrictions. We are looking into accommodations that can be made, such as delayed start dates, and alternate arrangements for our Globalink students when it is safe for them to travel.
In these times of developing solutions to COVID-19 and in the recovery to follow, Mitacs plays a critical role. We are working closely with government and partners to respond to the crisis. Mitacs is issuing COVID-19 specific calls for proposals for SMEs and expediting these projects; enabling college students to support the development portion of these projects; creating an inventory of equipment in our academic and industrial networks; and working with partners on joint COVID-19 projects. We are also working with many of our partners to coordinate our programs in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We all need to work together to create the innovative solutions we need to solve the current crisis and help with the economic recovery to follow.
Please be in touch if you have contributions or suggestions.
Best wishes for good health,
John
John Hepburn PhD, FRSC / msrc
CEO and Scientific Director | Président-directeur général et directeur scientifique
director@mitacs.ca