Sponsor
Mitacs
Program
Accelerate
For More Information
Description
Due to ongoing limitations in the provincial and federal funding landscape, institutions based in Ontario and Alberta continue to be impacted by Mitacs funding constraints. In Ontario, there are continued funding restrictions for 2025-26 for the Accelerate program, which includes the joint Mitacs applications with Tri-Agency programs, impacting the number of internship units (IUs) the University is allowed to submit for the 2025/26 fiscal year, as an 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.
Considering the level of federal funding to Mitacs, provincial considerations, the average use of the Accelerate program, and the historical use of the Elevate program by each institution, Mitacs has determined a maximum number of Accelerate Internship Units for each Full Partner University in Ontario and Alberta.
The University of Guelph has received a limit of 170 Accelerate Internship Units allowable within the 2025/26 fiscal year (April 1, 2025 through to March 31, 2026). This is expanded from the 120 Internship Units available to the University of Guelph in 2024/25, when the allocation was first announced in July 2024. The increased number of IU’s for 2025/26 reflects Guelph’s historic usage of the Accelerate and Elevate programs, along with an increase in line with provincial and federal funding received by Mitacs.
*Please note, Accelerate applications submitted via Indigenous Pathways or applications in quantum research are not impacted by the institutional allocation and are therefore exempt from the requirements outlined herein.
The University’s allocation of Accelerate IUs for the 2025/26 fiscal year will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with the process and requirements outlined below.
How to Apply
To access 2025/26 Accelerate IUs, 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.
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Please note, the following application requirements must be met:
- At least 50% of interns must be named at the time of application. If your application only involves one intern, then they must be named at the time of application.
- 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).
- 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.
- While IUs are ear-marked once Mitacs has initially reviewed the proposed project, the IUs are not guaranteed until a completed application is received and approved for final submission by the Research Services Office.
*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.