Mitacs Business Strategy Internship: Funding for Product, Process, and Service Innovation – Sept. 14, 2021

Session Description

The Mitacs Business Strategy Internship (BSI) 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. 

The BSI program aims to:

1. support innovation to generate knowledge and its transfer between academic and non-academic sectors
2. strengthen the innovation capabilities of partner organizations
3. support the creation and ownership of intellectual property in Canada
4. promote collaboration between sectors by reducing the risk for companies to engage in innovation
5. provide work-integrated learning and professional skills training to increase employability of post-secondary students
6. 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.

Target audience: Academic supervisors and student/post-doctoral fellow researchers for all academic disciplines.

Speakers:

• Wil de Vega, PhD., Director, Business Development, Mitacs, and Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, U of T
• Joseph Santarelli, Specialist, Business Development, Mitacs