Mitacs Accelerate Canadian Government Grants for R&D Support

Would your small business benefit from some top-notch research support? Mitacs has announced a new funding program to support research and collaboration between academic and industry partners. The Mitacs Accelerate PhD program is focused on providing PhD students and industry partners with a longer term of 3 years to work together on a research project. The PhD student can be studying in any field, including: manufacturing, technical innovation, business processes, IT, social sciences, design and more. The Mitacs Accelerate PhD program provides funding to pay a salary for the PhD student. The industry partner provides $12,000/year for each of the 3 years of the project. Mitacs provides the remaining amount to a total of $30,000/year. This new program differs from the existing Mitacs Accelerate Program, which is a $7500 cost-sharing grant for a 4-month internship for a current graduate student, spending 50% of their time at the company and the difference at their university to solve an R&D challenge.

Mitacs Accelerate PhD Government Grants Canada: Company Eligibility

The industry partner must be a Canadian based for-profit company or a Canadian-based foreign subsidiary company. To be eligible for funding through Mitacs Accelerate the company can be of any size, from small to large, so long as it provides a work location, onsite equipment and mentoring support to the PhD student who will work at their facility for 50% of the time, during the 3 year project.

Grants from the Canadian Government: Student Eligibility

The PhD student must be studying at a Canadian university and prepared to commit to a 3 year project. The student can be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or foreign student. To be eligible for this government funding, the student cannot be receiving funding from another federal source, such as NSERC, at the same time. Nor can the student have been a prior recipient of Mitacs Accelerate funding.

Mitacs Accelerate Funding for Small Business Program: Key Benefits

For companies, there are some key components of this program that make this an excellent opportunity to access government funding for small businesses. The small business can apply with an academic supervisor in advance of having a PhD candidate – to enable early access and secure the government funding from this program. The project start date is flexible as well – the project must be started by January 2, 2015. Applying early provides the opportunity to select the best PhD student for the research your company requires.

Access this and other Small Business Grants and Loans

To learn more about the advantages of this government funding program, please contact a Canadian Government Funding Planner at Mentor Works.