Connecting Industry with
University Expertise
Lindsay Bowman
Director, Business Development
New Brunswick
Agenda
• Overview of Mitacs Inc.
• Overview of Mitacs Programs
– Accelerate
– Elevate
– Globalink
• Wrap up / questions
Mitacs Inc.
A not-for-profit organization offering research and training
programs in partnership with provincial/federal governments,
academia, and industry.
Mitacs programs foster & support innovation and a knowledgebased economy in Canada
• Support world class multi-disciplinary research
• Connect industry partners with leading university researchers to
advance:
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Industry innovation
Research excellence
Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) training
Mitacs Programs
• Accelerate
– Grad student and post-doc research
projects / internships
Attract
Train
Retain
Deploy
• Elevate
– Post-doctoral fellowships
• Globalink
– International undergraduate student research projects at Canadian
universities
Accelerate
Objective:
• To initiate and support multi-disciplinary applied research
collaborations between university researchers and industrial
partners
Adopted model:
• Collaborative research projects are made up of multiples
(blocks) of 4-month internships
Accelerate: Funding –
One Internship Block
$15,000
research grant
$10,000
minimum student
stipend
•$7,500 Industry Partner
•$7,500 Mitacs
$5,000
other project-related
expenses
• Student spends approx. half time at company, half time at
university
• Travel subsidies available
Accelerate: Eligibility & Timeline
• Open to graduate students and post-doc fellows
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Masters students can do up to 2 internship blocks
PhD students can do up to 6 internship blocks
Post-docs can do up to 6 internship blocks
Note: students are limited to 6 internships per lifetime
• Each internship a 4-month block, which may be stretched to 6
months, depending on need
Accelerate: Application Process
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Application forms are short, quick and easy to fill-out
No application deadlines
Peer-reviewed by internal and external experts
Answers are given within 6 weeks of filing
Not a contest
International students are welcome
Full support of the Mitacs Business Development Team
Accelerate: Funding –
CLUSTERS
$80,000
research grant
$10,000 $10,000 $10,000
$10,000 $10,000 $10,000
internships
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•$36,000 Industry Partner
•$44,000 Mitacs
$20,000
other project-related
expenses
Extra leverage for medium to large projects
Minimum: 3 students (scalable)
Minimum total funding: $80K (6 blocks + $20K flexible)
Scalable: each additional $18K from industry generates $22K from Mitacs
Accelerate:
Eligible Industry Partners
• Eligible: Company / industry / business of any size with offices
or facilities in Canada where intern can spend time on-site
– Domestic or foreign-owned
– Eligible organisations may also include:
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Crown Corporations
University spin-offs
First Nations Development Corporations
Industry associations
• Ineligible: Hospitals, NGOs, municipalities, government
agencies, university spin-offs in same room as founding “lab”
Accelerate: Process
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Company Initiates
A company contacts a Mitacs
Business Development Director
to discuss potential project scope
Company can make use of their
contacts at Canadian universities
Or, sends Mitacs a brief project
description, Mitacs makes use of
their university network and
potential professor & intern
introduced to company
OR
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Professor/Student Initiates
A professor with an identified
industry partner & potential
intern contacts a Mitacs
Business Development Director
THEN
• The intern prepares a proposal, with company and professor, Mitacs
staff can assist (~ 2 months before start)
• Proposal submitted for peer review (non-competitive)
Case in point: UofT and CoreGen
Capital Partners
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Title: Valuation Analysis of Canada’s Privately-Held Technology Companies
Partner: CoreGen Capital Partners
Discipline: Economics
Project scope: The goal of this project is to develop a financial model
which will be used to value privately-held technology companies in
Canada. The research for the summer will be conducted with CoreGen
Capital Partners. Market participants typically pay a liquidity premium
when investing in the public market.
• The objectives of this research will be to accurately measure how investors
determine the illiquidity discounts and to incorporate those factors into a
valuation model for private technology companies in Canada.
Case in point: University of
Manitoba & Ameresco Canada
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Title: Clarifying the Concept and Measurement of School Climate
Partner: Ameresco Canada
Discipline: Sociology
Project scope: The condition of school facilities is an important,
manageable determinant of teaching and learning outcomes. Recent
research suggests that the effects of facility conditions on learning
outcomes are mediated through “school climate”.
• This project, in partnership with Ameresco, an independent energy
solutions company delivering long-term customer value through
innovative systems, strategies and technologies, will take stock of the
current definitions and measures of “school climate” and attempt to
construct a sophisticated, defensible understanding of how the concept
should be understood and measured.
Case in point: University of Alberta
& AQL Management Consulting Inc.
• Title: Embracing 2030: Muslim Community Strategies & Priorities
for the Future
• Partner: AQL Management Consulting Inc.
• Discipline: Religion
• Project scope: Various waves of immigration have altered the
profiles of Muslim communities in Alberta demanding a need for
better data and information for both short and long term planning
of services and infrastructure. This need poses challenges not only
to individual civil society organizations, but also to crossorganization coalitions seeking to build common ground upon
which to facilitate more comprehensive service efforts.
• To this end, using published demographic data, and information
gathered from various focus group interviews, this project seeks to
identify high-level issues across and between Islamic communities
in Edmonton.
Case in point: University of Victoria
& Squeezease Therapy Inc.
• Title: The Effects of a Deep Pressure Therapy Device on Anxiety,
Attention & Behaviour
• Partner: Squeezease Therapy Inc.
• Discipline: Psychology
• Project scope: The purpose of this research project is to test the
effects of an inflatable garment (vest) for providing Deep Pressure
Therapy to children with autism spectrum disorders and other
health disorders. The vest provides overall, evenly distributed
pressure to the torso, and pressure can be adjusted through a pump
and monitored through a pressure sensor.
• We are interested in how the vest will affect a child’s anxiety,
attention, and inhibition, and their general behaviour. We will be
testing children with autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit
disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Case in point: Université du Québec
and Tembec
• Title: Residual White Spruce Growth Responses Following Partial Cutting
Treatments in Boreal Mixedwoods
• Partner: Tembec
• Discipline: Environmental Sciences
• Project scope: The boreal mixedwood forests of the Abitibi region of
Quebec are often characterized by a canopy of trembling aspen with
shade tolerant species such as white spruce and balsam fir in the
subcanopy. In many cases, harvesting has converted complex mixedwoods
into simpler, even aged forests.
• The purpose of this project is to evaluate the growth responses of residual
white spruce trees in mixedwood stands where four different proportions
of trembling aspen were removed by partial cutting ten years ago.
Elevate
• 1-2 year competitive program for post-doctoral fellows
• Builds industrial scientific management capacity and retains
recent PhD graduates in Canada by:
– Transitioning PhD holders from academia to industry
– Providing on-site research and management training
– Offering supplementary training, mentorship, and tools for industrial
success
– Creating demand and opportunities within industry
Elevate Funding
• Annual award consists of a research grant provided to the
supervising professor to cover the fellow’s stipend & research
costs, as well as specialized leadership & management
training delivered by Mitacs.
– The grant is $57,500.00 per year; a minimum stipend of $50,000.00
per year must be paid to the fellow.
• Industry partner contribution: $25,000.00 cash per
year. Funds must be received by Mitacs in order to be
matched and forwarded to the university.
Globalink
• Goal: To make Canada THE graduate
research destination for international
students
• Mitacs funds international undergraduate
students to spend 3 months doing research
at Canadian universities
• Mitacs works with universities to offer
attractive scholarships to encourage return
for graduate studies
For More Information
Lindsay Bowman
Director, Business Development, NB and PEI
lbowman@mitacs.ca
mitacs.ca
Rukhsana Majothi
Eric Bosco
Coordinator, Grant Management
Atlantic Region
rmajothi@mitacs.ca
514-840-7492
Executive Vice President,
Business Development
ebosco@mitacs.ca
514-833-9690