Mitacs has boosted support for Canadian innovations in the fight against COVID-19 including expanded and fast-tracked funding as well as added flexibility and support.
Mitacs is a federally and provincially supported not-for-profit organization that fosters Canadian innovation through industry-academic collaborations and has funded over 16,000 research and innovation projects with.
Funding expanded and fast-tracked
In light of the pandemic, Mitacs launched an initiative to expedite the approval process and to enable SMEs that are responding to COVID-19 access to the Accelerate internship with a 25% reduced SME company contribution for an innovation project performed in collaboration with a post-secondary institution.
Mitacs additionally launched a one-time call for proposals for year-long COVID-19-related research projects by postdoctoral fellows partnering with companies. For projects conducted with an SME, the business pays only 25% of the cost with a fast-track review process.
For a limited time, internship offerings have also been expanded to include the development portion of COVID-19 Mitacs projects by college students (including coding, prototyping, monitoring cell cultures, managing data, and creating visual presentations of modeling, among others).
Partnering with NSERC
In April 2020, Mitacs partnered with NSERC to expedite funding for COVID -19 solutions.
NSERC recently launched the NSERC Alliance COVID-19 (up to $50,000 for one-year) and the Applied Research Rapid Response to COVID-19 grants (up to $75,000) for academia-industry collaborative projects that address challenges caused by the pandemic
Applicants are eligible for both Mitacs Accelerate internships and NSERC Collaborative Research and Development grants (CRD). Once the NSERC Alliance or Applied Research Response project is funded, the Mitacs internship funding can be added to support the research collaboration.
Leveraging multiple government funding sources is critical for business survival under the current global and economic conditions. Canadian technology companies that are developing innovative solutions to help fight COVID-19 can currently access various federal and provincial funding programs to support R&D initiatives.
Added flexibility and resources
By introducing a new flexible model, Mitacs is enabling participants to work from home where possible or to put projects on hold if working remotely is not feasible.