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Update on ORS contacts for Mitacs program and Accelerate Internship Unit Allocation

Changes to Office of Research Services (ORS) contacts for Mitacs programs:

As of April 1, Ontario Tech researchers are asked to contact the ORS Partnerships team for all Mitacs program queries and for assistance with Mitacs application development.

Partnerships Officer contact information:

  • Victoria Nash-Woolley (Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science)
  • Anna Kristoffersen (Faculty of Science, Faculty of Health Sciences)
  • Daniel Huizenga (Faculty of Business and Information Technology, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Frazer Faculty of Education)

Fiscal year 2025-26 internship unit (IU) allocation for the Mitacs Accelerate program:

Due to financial constraints in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Mitacs has issued a submission allowance for the Accelerate program. This allowance limits the total number of IUs that can be submitted for the 2025-2026 fiscal year by an academic institution. In addition, due to the current financial constraints, Mitacs is encouraging projects with a high proportion of named interns (projects with over 50 per cent named Internship Units) and which are less than two years in duration.

For the 2025-2026 fiscal year (April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026), Ontario Tech is limited to submit a total of 105 IUs for the Accelerate Program.  

  • IUs will be allocated to projects as they are submitted on a first-come, first-served basis. Once Ontario Tech’s limit of 105 Ius has been reached, no further Accelerate projects may be submitted.
  • The Accelerate IU limit applies across all Accelerate programs including: standard Accelerate, Accelerate Entrepreneur and the joint NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate program. The Accelerate IU limit will also apply to any funded extensions (where the partner and Mitacs are contributing additional money for additional IUs to the project) for current active Accelerate projects.
  • The internship limit applies to all IUs submitted during the 2025-2026 fiscal year, regardless of when the IUs will be activated. As a result, projects with named interns which can be delivered within this fiscal period are strongly encouraged. For multi-year projects, it may be preferred to break the work up into phases and only apply for the first phase during the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

**Mandatory next steps before initiating a new Mitacs Accelerate application:

  • All researchers are asked to connect with the appropriate (refer to contact list above) in ORS before initiating any Accelerate application via their online application portal and/or drafting an Accelerate application. ORS will confirm the availability of the required IUs and then connect the researcher to our Mitacs Business Development Advisor to start working on the application.

About the Mitacs Accelerate program:

The  program matches an industry or not-for-profit partner’s contribution to the cost of a collaborative research project. Students and/or Post-Doctoral Fellows can receive up to $15,000 in funding for each IU. Each IU represents $7,500 in funding from the project partner (subject to applicable tax) matched with $7,500 from Mitacs per each 4-to-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.