Deadline: September 16, 2025
Nominations are open for the Mitacs Innovation Awards 2025. Now in its 15th year, the Mitacs Innovation Awards will spotlight eight exceptional innovators — from students and professors to start-ups and business partners — whose groundbreaking work is made possible through partnerships with Mitacs. Mitacs is committed to building strategic partnerships, deploying top talent, and addressing pressing challenges through inclusive innovation designed to position Canada as a global leader.
The Mitacs Innovation Awards are an opportunity to:
- Celebrate achievements and share compelling stories of Canadian ingenuity
- Bring together Canada’s top researchers with leaders from across sectors including industry, post-secondary institutions, and government
- Provide a spotlight on new and emerging Canadian talent and highlight groundbreaking achievements
With a growing reputation as one of Canada’s premier innovation celebrations, the event draws national media attention. The 2025 ceremony will be livestreamed through Mitacs’s social channels, with highlights, videos, and winner stories shared after the event.
Categories
- Outstanding Innovation: With four winners in this category, the Mitacs Outstanding Innovation Award recognizes extraordinary talent from across Canada among students and post-doctoral fellows who have participated in a Mitacs programs. This category emphasizes the societal and economic impacts of research, as well as the potential to drive innovation and address challenges.
- Inclusive Innovator of the Year: This Award is intended to celebrate the achievements of equity-deserving groups in developing and/or fostering an inclusive innovation ecosystem. It celebrates research achievements that promote social inclusion, incorporate diverse perspectives, and prioritize accessibility in the design and execution of innovative projects, products, and services.
- Canadian Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award: The Canadian Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award celebrates an outstanding Canadian innovator who has counted on Mitacs support to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey. This award highlights the successful commercialization of research and/or the creation of a new business enterprise by a Mitacs program participant. This award is a celebration of the infinite potential created when research and entrepreneurial vision align.
- Canadian Enterprise Innovator of the Year Award: The Canadian Enterprise Innovator of the Year Award celebrates a Mitacs industry partner whose leadership, adoption of burgeoning technology, and support of innovative research and development demonstrate an ongoing commitment to developing talent and boosting Canada’s productivity and economic growth.
- Outstanding Research Leadership: The Mitacs Innovation Award for Outstanding Research Leadership is presented to a post-secondary supervisor with an exemplary record of developing collaborations with business partners. Either associated with a university or college, the winner of this category provides valuable research and training experience to Mitacs interns and implements funding towards impactful projects.
Eligibility
- The award categories are open to nominations for college, CEGEP, polytechnic, and university participants from eligible programs.
- All awards are open to peer and self-nomination with letters of support from academic supervisors required for intern and student self-nomination.
Application
Self-nominations for the Outstanding Innovation Award require a support letter from your supervisor. Research Leadership Award nominations also need a support letter. No late submissions will be accepted.
For more information, visit Mitacs Innovation Awards.
