Mitacs

Requirements and process of applying for and carrying out a Mitacs Accelerate grant at SFU

Mitacs is an organization that provides funding for research internships. The money they provide is then matched by an external funder and paid out to the intern after the external partner’s funds are confirmed by Mitacs.

Internships are in increments of 4 or 6 months in length (known as “internship units” or IUs). The applied-for amount per IU is $15k for students and $20k for Post Docs. Of the awarded amount, $10k at a minimum must be used for the intern’s stipend for students and $15k for postdocs. You can apply for multiple “blocks” of internships – e.g., one student for 18 months or 3 students for 6 months each.

In this process, all bolded content indicates a step in the process where a delay can occur, and what you can do to anticipate or prevent these delays.

Creating a proposal for Mitacs Accelerate

Mitacs has several programs and not all are administered the same way. This document addresses Mitacs Accelerate process only, the most common research-based internship opportunity. For Mitacs Globalink and Mitacs Business Strategy please see the APPENDIX.

Supervisors work with Mitacs on the proposal and submission following processes outlined in the Mitacs funding opportunity. Since the resulting funds are administered at SFU as an “externally funded research activity” governed by Policy R10.01, each application must be internally approved by SFU’s relevant Department / School, Faculty, and Research Services (ORS) before submitting the funding application to Mitacs.

To secure internal approvals, supervisors are required to create and submit a “proposal” through Kuali Research, as they would with any other grant or funding opportunity. It is possible for a delegate to create the Kuali entry, but the proposal must be under the name of the supervisor and must be reviewed and approved by the supervisor as part of the submission workflow. Interns cannot apply for their own Mitacs funds. To avoid delays, if the student is filling in the details, make sure the Kuali Proposal is in the name of the supervisor and that the supervisor reviews and approves the Kuali Proposal after the intern has completed the data entry. Without PI approval, the proposal gets “stuck” and will not proceed to the next approver. NOTE: If the supervisor is filling in the Kuali Proposal information, they do not need to approve it in a separate step as long as they say “no” to “would you like to receive future approval requests?” See the Training page for more details on submitting a Kuali Research proposal.

In the proposal for Mitacs, as well as in the Kuali proposal, you need to identify the following:

the external partner who will be matching the funds
the number of IUs; please note that while the name of the student can be “TBD” on the application, money can only be released to named students who will be working the internship covered by these funds
the total funding requested from Mitacs (overhead is 0 for all Mitacs proposals)
the Mitacs proposal and budget (added as an attachment to the Kuali Proposal)
the start and end dates of the internship

Missing any of these items may delay the approval process and access to funds.

The approval process within SFU and the proposal development with Mitacs can run concurrently, as long as there is enough information for the sign-off by your Chair and Dean. Formal submission to Mitacs can only happen after full SFU internal sign off. Once ORS provides the institutional approval on the Mitacs application, it can be submitted for Mitacs review. This is done either through the Mitacs online portal or as a signature on the Mitacs Memorandum (after being signed by all other parties).

Mitacs will not award the funding until they have a start date and a name for the intern, and they have received the money from the external funder. Once this is confirmed, Mitacs will send the funds to SFU and the award letter is created. SFU cannot start the internship until money is received.

Compliance Review & Approval

If there are any compliance requirements (Research Ethics, Biosafety, Animal Care) for the research project, the funds will not be released by ORS until an approved certificate is submitted with the Mitacs project. The Mitacs project must be added as a funding source to existing and new compliance certificates.

If the internship includes work with human participants or any other activity requiring an ethics protocol, use Kuali Protocols to start the approval process as soon as possible.

COI Management Plan

It is common for researchers to hire interns to work at companies they have created; e.g., a business they have invested in or a company they serve as an advisor or board member. It’s essential for any real or perceived Conflict of Interests (COIs) to be disclosed up front with an approved management plan.

If the PI/Supervisor has a declared COI, they must complete both the Mitacs Acknowledgement of Conflict of Interest form as well as the SFU COI Declaration Process at time of application.

See this resource for more information on COIs and creating a management plan. Note that filing a COI on the Mitacs application is not sufficient if the SFU process has not been also completed for supervisors!

If the intern has declared a COI, they must complete the Mitacs Conflict of Interest Declaration Form at the time of application.

SFU-Mitacs IP Policy

SFU has a specific IP Policy for Mitacs Accelerate projects. Under this policy, the partner organization owns the intern’s IP developed during a project. As a result of this policy, in the Declarations section of the Mitacs application applicants must answer ‘Yes’ to Question 3.9: “Will intellectual property (IP) arising from the project be owned by, assigned to, or licensed to the partner organization(s)?”. ORS is unable to approve any application that does not answer in the affirmative to this question.

Paying Your Interns

Once the first installment of funds is received and compliance requirements are verified, ORS works with Research Accounting to create an account for the grant funds. Following the initial setup process, ORS will email the PI and Department/Faculty the new account number (RXXXXXX). This account number will be required to complete the appointment process, so the intern(s) can be paid.

Just because the money is in the account does not mean the student will automatically get paid. To connect the funds to the student, you must complete a Payroll Appointment Form (PAF).

To create a PAF, see this resource.

If you have multiple students, you need to be very clear about which student gets money from which company. The Mitacs awards, no matter how small, are name and time specific. If later IUs do not name the student (i.e. was stated as TBD), the next installment may be delayed until the name is provided to Mitacs. Supervisors need to be proactive with updating names to prevent delays in funding.

Similarly, if the end date needs to be extended from the original end date, payment will only be available after the extension is processed in the system and a new Notice of Award (NOA) is received with the updated parameters.

If you have students who are receiving funding for multiple IUs, there can be some delays in the funding because sometimes the external funding isn’t received on time by Mitacs. If this is the case, Mitacs will not release funds for the next IU to SFU until the money is received, which can result in a delay in the student being paid. If pay for your student stops, they should cease working on the project and inquire about continuation of the funding before work continues (this can avoid problems of students “working for free” if the company does not pay Mitacs).

If supervisors have the option to be proactive and request at least 12 months of funding from the partner company, the risk of “stop and go” with payroll can be minimized. If the company must pay in smaller time increments, supervisors must monitor payroll appointments closely and must pay attention to Mitacs auto notification emails alerting of delays with invoicing. Relationship management and follow up with the company can help avoid delays.

Amendments to an Award

If you want to change the student who is going to be paid under a Mitacs grant, you must amend the paperwork to ensure that the correct student gets paid. If the amendment is not made, the student will not receive any compensation. First, notify your Mitacs advisor or their grants team to receive the required form. Once processed on the Mitacs side, submit the changes with the paperwork to ORS. The PI or Department is required to submit an Early End PAF for the “old” student and a new PAF for the incoming student to reflect the changes outlined in the revised NOA from Mitacs.

Compliance Reporting

ORS is required to report on the Mitacs funding to ensure compliance for the award. Mitacs requires a final report at the end of the project and annual reporting for projects that run longer than one year. This reporting is handled by the Research Accounting team.

Summary of Steps

1. PI creates a draft proposal for Mitacs
2. PI submits proposal in Kuali Research, including:

External funding partner
Student hired for internship or IUs
Start and end dates of internship
Kuali budget total per period
Draft Mitacs proposal including budget (advanced enough for approvers to be able to make decision on)

3. PI submits compliance or amendment requests as applicable at SFU in parallel with Mitacs submission:

Ethics Protocols for research involving human subjects
Animal Care certificate
Biohazard Certificate
COI management plan

4. SFU approves internal submission
5. PI submits completed proposal to Mitacs
6. Mitacs makes a funding decision, sends award letter (NOA) to SFU
7. ORS processes award letter received from Mitacs and completes eligibility and compliance verification
8. ORS and Research Accounting (RA) set up a research account (R number) for the first installment
9. PI receives notifications containing the R number from both ORS and RA once the project Rxxxxxx is ready to be activated.
10.PI creates and submits a PAF for student with the R number
11. Student named on award gets paid until end date of the IU assuming subsequent installments are received from Mitacs on time. Note that if company is late paying the next installment to Mitacs, Mitacs will be delayed sending next installment to SFU and student will not receive further payments. SFU will not pay shortfall caused by overpaying beyond project dates if new installment is not received.
12. ORS / Mitacs processes changes and amendments to student names, end dates upon request from PI when needed

Appendix

Mitacs Globalink (GRA)

This program is managed by SFU International: https://www.sfu.ca/globalink-research-award/gra.html

The GRA inbound mobility program (international interns travelling to SFU) will remain on hold at SFU until further notice.

The GRA Outbound Mobility program is currently unavailable for undergraduate students and Post docs.

GRA Outbound Grad Student Mobility program is currently active to countries that are not under travel advisory. To apply for this program, follow the process as described for Accelerate.

Mitacs Globalink Research Internship (GRI)

This program is open to international undergraduate students from partner countries to conduct a 12-week research internship in Canada, typically in the summer.

The inbound MITACS GRI program is administered by SFU International Services for Students (ISS). Inquiries about the program can be directly to MaiLing Gao isapmgr@sfu.ca

For more information, see https://www.mitacs.ca/our-programs/globalink-research-internship-students/

Mitacs Business Strategy (BSI)

This program does not involve ORS, so a Kuali Research Proposal is not required. Proposals are developed with Mitacs and sent to the Dean’s Office for internal approval.

Awards are managed by the School/Faculty and Research Accounting in Fund 25 (not Fund 31).

For more information, see https://www.mitacs.ca/our-programs/business-strategy-internship/

Researcher Resources