Deadline: Ongoing
Applications are open for the Mitacs Business Strategy Internship Program 2021. The award provides either $10,000 or $15,000 per intern to allow them to undertake a four-month internship project with a partner organization in Canada.
Interns will work with their academic supervisor to co-design a project with their partner organization to work on the organization’s innovation activities, helping them improve their products, processes, or services. Throughout the internship, Mitacs provides online professional development courses to interns through their e-Campus, EDGE.
The BSI program aims to:
- support innovation to generate knowledge and its transfer between academic and non-academic sectors
- strengthen the innovation capabilities of partner organizations
- support the creation and ownership of intellectual property in Canada
- promote collaboration between sectors by reducing the risk for companies to engage in innovation
- provide work-integrated learning and professional skills training to increase employability of post-secondary students
- ensure and promote equitable access by underrepresented groups to foster inclusive innovation
Innovation projects are expected to lead to change and improvements for the partner and/or community, through exploration, design, and implementation of improvements/efficiencies in business models, products, processes, or service delivery.
Eligibility
Interns must:
- be a registered college, undergraduate, graduate student or postdoctoral researcher at a Canadian academic institution;
- not be a current, active participant in another Mitacs program;
- can be from any discipline or faculty;
- can be part-time students that meet the following criteria:
- they have student status at the academic institution for the duration of the internship;
- they are covered under the institution’s insurance, the same as full-time students;
- the institution can pay the intern a salary or stipend from the Mitacs grant;
- the intern can commit to the project for the appropriate duration (BSI internships are four months and may be spread over up to six months to accommodate other commitments).
Academic institutions must be one of the following:
- a Canadian university that is a Mitacs Full, Associate, or Honourary Member;
- a Canadian college/CEGEP/polytechnic with a signed Mitacs Funding Agreement.
Academic supervisors must be one of the following:
- a faculty member at a participating Canadian university who is eligible to hold Tri-Agency funding; or
- a faculty member or appropriate research staff at a participating Canadian college/CEGEP/polytechnic with a signed Mitacs Funding Agreement
In addition to the eligible academic supervisors listed on the application, additional academic staff may be involved in the day-to-day management of the internship, including mentoring the intern. This supervision should be described in the text of the proposal.
Partner organizations must be one of the following:
- a for-profit corporation in Canada
- an incorporated not-for-profit (NFP) organization in Canada
- Eligible NFPs include charities, economic development organizations, industry associations, social welfare organizations, health organizations, foundations, and research centres/institutes.
- a municipality
- a hospital
Application
- Prospective interns and/or academic supervisors apply to the program through the Mitacs Registration and Application Portal (RAP) and complete all sections of the application.
- All participants (intern, academic supervisor, partner organization) sign off on the application through the RAP.
- The lead applicant downloads the completed project proposal and ORS sign-off template and sends to the ORS or equivalent office for review and signature.
- The lead applicant uploads the ORS signature page to the RAP and submits the application.
For more information, visit Mitacs Business Strategy.
