Mitacs Accelerate Global Excellence Award
Powering Innovation Through Global Talent
The Mitacs Accelerate Global Excellence Award aims to draw outstanding international researcher talent and Canadians currently studying abroad to industrial research projects in partnership with leading Canadian researchers — enabled by a competitive funding package of Can$170,000 over two years.
About the award
The Mitacs Accelerate Global Excellence Award is a new funding opportunity targeting individuals who will relocate to Canada for a collaborative, industrial-based research project at an eligible Canadian academic institution and with a Mitacs-eligible partner (private company, not-for-profit organization, municipality, or hospital).
Jointly funded by Mitacs and industry partners, this award ensures strong collaboration and impact and will provide an enhanced funding package to support the costs of research as well as relocation.
Each two-year project will be valued at $170,000, broken down as follows:
- $85,000 annual award, with $42,500 + tax per year provided by the partner organization (full contribution for the first year will be invoiced upon project approval)
- Minimum of $70,000 allocated to stipend and up to $15,000 available for research and relocation expenses
Mitacs is pleased to partner with CIFAR to offer up to an additional 10 fellowships to researchers affiliated with CIFAR.
Who should apply
Postdoctoral fellows
- Must currently reside outside Canada and intend to relocate to Canada to take up the award
- Eligible within five years of PhD completion (extensions available for parental leave, military service, etc.)
- Must be eligible for postdoctoral fellow status at a Canadian institution
- Canadians/permanent residents returning to Canada or international candidates requiring a work permit are eligible
- Must not have been employed full-time at the partner organization before applying
- Must be 18 years or older
Partner organizations
- Canadian for-profit companies (must receive more than 50 percent of their funds from non-government sources); eligible not-for-profit corporations, municipalities, or hospitals in Canada
- Eligibility can be confirmed with a Mitacs Advisor
Academic supervisors
- Must be faculty at a Canadian academic institution
- Must be eligible to hold Tri-Agency funds
All parties must declare any potential conflicts of interest upon application submission, including:
An academic supervisor in a position of ownership, employment or influence over operations at the partner organization
A postdoctoral fellow in a position of ownership, employment or influence over operations at the partner organization
Program participants with a close family relationship with each other, or with someone in a position of ownership, employment or influence at the partner organization
Global talent in action
Mitacs' talent-first model includes support and opportunities for highly skilled international postdoctoral researchers who bring fresh perspectives and practical solutions to real-world challenges. Many Mitacs postdocs have transformed their research into commercial impact. These are just a few examples.
Applying research to meet mobility needs
Vancouver-based Human In Motion Robotics provides a mobility solution for people with lower extremity motor deficits and severe mobility impairments. The company's XoMotion™ exoskeleton allows users to walk and stand with natural movements, training the body to recover movement when possible.
It’s an ambitious, cross-disciplinary project that Nafise Faridi Rad is proud to be part of as a postdoctoral fellow. A PhD graduate from the University of British Columbia, Rad began studying robotics with the ambition to see her work move beyond the lab and into commercial applications.
Through her Mitacs Accelerate postdoc with Human In Motion Robotics, Nafise has gained hands-on experience applying her research in real-world settings, with interdisciplinary collaboration helping to identify challenges and bring practical solutions closer to market.
Building better batteries for global markets
As a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University, Ravindra Kempaiah studied the development and commercialization of long-lifetime lithium-ion batteries for light electric vehicles. By working with Dalhousie’s Dr. Jeff Dhan — a pioneering developer of the lithium-ion battery technology used today — Kempaiah propelled his academic expertise and experience to launch a company.
With support from the Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur program, Kempaiah founded Zen Energy in 2021. The Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-based company innovates and commercializes long-lifetime batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Kempaiah is now developing digital AI twins that can track battery performance to improve design, adaptability, and reliability.
The technology is being developed within Canada but applied to global solutions to meet the growing market for battery-powered vehicles.
From lab to CEO with Mitacs’ support
As a PhD student conducting research at Children’s Hospital, Ali Pormohammad saw firsthand the need for the development of new biotech and medicines. “I was doing an internship and seeing lots of kids and patients dying due to infections for which we used to have treatment," he says. "Available antibiotics are getting resistance and it’s challenging both diagnosis and treatment in the infection field."
Pormohammad had worked on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) for over a decade when he joined a leading lab in biological sciences while a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. Despite initial obstacles in finding industry partners to tackle AMR, Pormohammad connected with one within a week of joining the Mitacs Elevate program.
Pormohammad later joined the Accelerate Entrepreneur program and went on to become the founder of MHCombiotic in Alberta, helping advance patented solutions to AMR.