Survey shows significant benefits stemming from Mitacs Accelerate internship program

In the lead-up to the federal Budget, Mitacs has released the results of a survey of that shows overwhelming support for its Accelerate graduate student internship program and an increase in R&D by current and past industrial partners. The also survey found that 88% of responding firms would participate in Accelerate again, while 92% say they would recommend it to others.

The Vancouver-based organization is seeking $200 million over five years in the next Budget which will be leveraged to a total of $720 million, allowing it to boost internships from 2,500 to its target of 10,000 by 2020 (R$, October 30/14).

Respondents said that project interns were easily available and that both the interns and academic supervisors had the appropriate expertise and experience for the project at hand.

One third of industry partners said the results of the projects supported by Accelerate have been or are being commercialized while another third anticipated commercialization in the future. Furthermore, nearly one third said they had hired at least one of their interns while 25% said the program led to other new employees being hired.

Use of Accelerate interns helped firms identify new market segments (34%), led to market expansion (31%) and resulted in cost savings (18%) or increased sales (11%).

The R&D outcomes (techniques and tools or knowledge generated) stemming from the use of Mitacs interns were used to a great (24%) or very great extent (41%) by respondents. More than half of companies reported that significant progress had been made on a research problem.

The online longitudinal survey yielded 253 individual responses and 214 complete questionnaires for an overall response rate of 19% from Mitacs' for-profit industry partners.

For full survey results, go to www.mitacs.ca.

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