Mitacs Accelerate
Our Process for Administering Mitacs Accelerate
Funding
- Timeline to project start date:
2-4 months (variable if Mitacs participant needs to be identified)
- Parties involved:
OCIE manager, Mitacs participant and faculty supervisor, industry representative, and Mitacs representative for Dalhousie
- Download a blank copy of a Dalhousie-Mitacs Agreement [PDF 337 KB]
*The Mitacs agreement is part of the applicaton process and is a non-negotiable standard form agreement to ensure transparency among all parties.
OCIE works with Mitacs to connect industry and/or not-for-profit organizations with talented students and post-doctoral fellows (PDFs) through the Accelerate program. Together, they work on collaborative projects that can vary in length from four months to multiple years.
Conflict of Interest
Dalhousie University advocates transparency as an effective way of managing conflict of interest and the Conflict of Interest Policy - Conflict of Interest Policy - University Secretariat - Dalhousie University [PDF 109 KB] sets out a mechanism for identifying and addressing actual, perceived or potential conflict of interests.
Examples of perceived or actual conflict of interest include, but are not limited to situations when a Researcher/Faculty/Supervisor:
- conducts or participates in a research project which may affect his or her financial interests or those of a related business
- supervises a graduate or undergraduate student employed by a business in which the university member has a financial interest; or
- where the Mitacs Participant is a closely associated person to the Researcher/Faculty/ Supervisor
The Researcher/Faculty/Supervisor must follow the Procedures outlined in Section 5 of Dalhousie’s Definition of Conflict of Interest Policy, and note the COI in the Mitacs application, Section 3.5. Researchers applying for regular Mitacs accelerate program, use the Dalhousie-Mitacs COI disclosure form to declare the personal or financial COI.
Management of Payments
Dalhousie has encountered this situation numerous times and has a process to mitigate the Conflict of Interest. Typically, the Dean, Associate Dean Research or Unit Head in the given Faculty or Provost who does not have a Conflict of Interest will act as signing authority to distribute expenses related to the project in line with the project budget and Dalhousie’s policies and procedures.
About Mitacs Accelerate
The Mitacs Accelerate program matches an industry or not-for-profit partner’s contribution to the cost of a collaborative internship project. Students and/or PDFs can receive up to $15,000 in funding. For example, one internship unit* can see that $7,500 in funding from the project partner (subject to applicable tax) matched with $7,500 from Mitacs per each 4-6 month period of work completed.
The Mitacs participant completes half of their internship on-site with the industry partner and the other half at the university under faculty supervision. The Mitacs participant is responsible for completing a report about the project that is reviewed by their faculty supervisor and presented to the industry partner.
This is a great opportunity for students and PDFs to gain relevant hands-on industry skills in a non-academic environment while also building their own professional network.
*It's possible to have multiple internship units per project.
Please note: there’s also funding available to student entrepreneurs through the Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur program. Read more about it in our Information for Startups section.
The Mitacs Halifax representative is Aishwarya Mohan. If you have any questions, please contact her by email at amohan@mitacs.ca or by phone at (782) 641-2916.