Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur

Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur supports student and postdoctoral founders who want to advance the core research or technology of their own incorporated start-up. It sits under Mitacs and keeps the academic link in place through partner institutions, but the commercial company is the vehicle that receives the benefit. The focus is the founder's venture, not an outside client's project. Each internship unit is $15,000, split evenly between Mitacs and the partner, with a minimum $10,000 stipend and up to $5,000 for research costs. Units usually run four to six months, projects can last up to two years, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis with decisions in about six to eight weeks. The start-up must be incorporated, housed in an approved incubator, and the applicant must own and actively run it. Consulting firms and employees without ownership are excluded. This is a strong fit for founders who already have a real company structure and can point to a concrete technical advance at the heart of the venture. It is also a narrow programme, because the founder must be a student or postdoc at a Mitacs partner institution and the work has to move the company's core technology forward. In practice, the strongest proposals are tightly scoped, clearly commercial, and ready to use a short internship to unlock a specific technical milestone.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.