Sponsor
Mitacs
Program
Accelerate
For More Information
Description
We are pleased to share that allocations on Mitacs Accelerate submissions for Full and Associate Members in Alberta and Ontario are lifted.
Over the past six months, Mitacs focused on sustainability, stabilization and the opportunity to invest in our purpose-driven mandate to further strengthen the Canadian economy. As a result of their strong delivery performance in the 2024-25 fiscal year and confirmation of funding from the Province of Alberta, Mitacs is now able to provide additional program delivery in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The previous Allocations model in Alberta and Ontario helped ensure an equitable distribution of activity across Mitacs's Full and Associate Members. This decision was based on the best information available to Mitacs at that time. Webinar and email messaging from Mitacs in February 2025 shared that allocations represented a minimum number of Accelerate units available and that Mitacs would endeavour to make more units available, if tenable. Mitacs is now pleased to be able to do so and trust that this decision will facilitate the support of additional impactful research and innovation collaborations at your institution.
Also, effective April 1, 2025, the Mitacs Elevate program will fold into Accelerate, due to Mitacs fulfilling the Elevate targets in its Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) contract. A Postdoctoral funding model of $20K per IU ($60K per year) will now be accessible via an Accelerate application.
Lastly, the requirement to have 50% named interns on Mitacs applications has been lifted, however, Mitacs is prioritizing projects that have interns named or have a strong recruitment plan to have interns named within the year.
How to Apply
To submit an application to the 2025/26 Accelerate program, potential applicants must follow the below steps:
- Please first connect with Guelph’s Mitacs Advisor, Fatemeh Bakhtiari (fbakhtiari@mitacs.ca) to discuss your potential project. Mitacs will pre-review the proposed partner(s) and intern(s) to assess and confirm eligibility. Your project will then be ear-marked for the appropriate number of IU’s.
-
Please note, the following application requirements must be met:
- Project duration can be from 4 months (1 IU) to 5 years.
- Partner(s) and intern(s), as applicable, must be pre-reviewed and deemed eligible by Mitacs.
- Partner(s) must be supplying new funds, to be invoiced by Mitacs, and subject to HST (*see note below).
- While applications do not required named interns, Mitacs is prioritizing projects that have interns named or have a strong recruitment plan to have interns named within the year.
- Following meeting the above criteria, the lead researcher will initiate an application in Mitacs’ portal, which, once completed, will be pre-reviewed by Mitacs. Once this pre-review is complete, the lead researcher/supervisor must submit a PDF of the application (includes sign-off/approval by the lead researcher, intern(s), and partner(s)), along with a signed OR-5 to the Research Services Office at research.services@uoguelph.ca.
*Please note, if the proposed partner funding being utilized in an application is unspent funding already under an agreement/account at the University, the lead researcher must contact the Research Services Office before engaging Mitacs to verify the ability to use the funds for a Mitacs Accelerate application. This will require review of the account and agreement, and engagement with Research Financial Services, to review options for utilizing the funding already at the University.