NBIF and Mitacs Partnership Accelerates Innovation

Laura Richard

Director of Research

There has been a lot going on behind the scene at NBIF that we are really excited about. Our partnership with Mitacs is one of them. This partnership will provide funding for 40 internships, valued at up to $17,500 each, earmarked explicitly for NBIF venture capital portfolio companies or those that have received an NBIF Innovation Voucher.

Mitacs is a national not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation by solving business challenges with research solutions from Canada’s universities and colleges. They create experiential learning opportunities that enable students to advance their skills and transfer applications from the laboratory to real-world settings and enhance their job opportunities after graduation. 

How it works is that we’re investing $160,000 from our reserve fund into Mitacs Accelerate grants, specifically for the use of N.B. based companies that NBIF is already supporting. This means that we’re contributing $4,000 to every internship, Mitacs will contribute on average $6,000 per internship, and the company receiving the internship will fund the remainder of the cost.

We see this as a robust way to support New Brunswick’s most promising companies and their R&D efforts. Students get real-world research experience, and the companies benefit from their knowledge, passion and the guidance of a faculty member. It will accelerate product development and help New Brunswick companies leverage research to improve products and services.

These internships are available to graduate students across Canada. A faculty member will support both the student and the research efforts as part of this program and create essential linkages between New Brunswick companies and professors with deep research expertise.

Alongside this program investment, we’re also making it easier for companies to apply for research grants from our Lab To Market program with the same application as the internships. Worth up to $50,000 and available only to New Brunswick-based researchers, this funding can be applied to lab equipment, prototyping, market research and pilot projects and the costs of securing intellection property.

This is another step towards actively supporting innovative New Brunswick companies. There is much to be gained by forging stronger ties between the private sector in New Brunswick and the university and college research community. 

You can find out more about these internship opportunities here.

To read the official media release, click here to visit the Mitacs Newsroom.