When Indigenous-owned Maskwiomin — a start-up that produces a birch bark extract skincare product based on traditional Mi’kmaq teachings — needed assistance with marketing, it found a solution through Mitacs.

Balance Biogas is revolutionizing how we power our world. By harnessing cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking research, this Yukon-based company is transforming organic waste into a valuable resource. With support from Mitacs, Balance Biogas is spearheading efficient, clean, and renewable biogas production methods that are driving down greenhouse gas emissions and fostering a circular economy.

As a graduate student at Congo’s Université de Lubumbashi, Rosette Kakese Mukosa travelled to Canada through the Mitacs Accelerate International program to evaluate the efficacy of a disinfectant powder on a harmful strain of the bacteria Escherichia coli. The results demonstrated a significant bactericidal effect, offering a safe alternative to combat bacteria.

Based in St. Albert, Alberta, Medidas Digital developed TrypScore, a mobile app that gathers and analyzes driver risk data and uses challenges, leaderboards, and incentives to nudge behavioural improvements.

Henry Huang, a Master of Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Toronto, made significant strides in improving maternal healthcare during his participation in the Mitacs Accelerate program.  

Innovation starts with asking the right questions.

For Transport Genie Ltd., a deceptively simple question vexing Canadian biosecurity experts sparked a collaboration that accelerated development of the company’s smart sensor technology and brought it to the cusp of commercial success.

Based in Aurora, Ont., the company is working with two Mitacs interns supervised by University of Saskatchewan’s Dr. Terry Fonstad to advance sensors that monitor animal welfare during transport.

The fashion industry has an environmental problem and Iris Redinger is working to address a significant part of the challenge: clothing dyes. Her innovative solution uses micro-organisms that naturally produce colour. 

Nathalie Gingras-Royer, a master’s graduate in vision sciences from Université de Montréal, is working on the development of an inclusive technology that will address the needs of people with visual impairment. As part of her master’s, she took part in the Mitacs Accelerate program to carry out an internship with VMWare, a company that provides virtualisation and cloud computing software and services. 

After turning conventional wisdom on its head — by exploring the role that lactic acid plays in cancer cells even though scientists have long considered it a harmless waste product — University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher Stephen Yiu Chuen Choi is using his breakthrough discovery to develop a first-of-its-kind treatment for difficult-to-treat prostate cancers. 

Thierry Judge, a master’s student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sherbrooke, has developed a technology that identifies when results generated by emerging artificial intelligence (AI) systems — which speed up analysis of ultrasound images to detect heart disease — are incorrect or uncertain. The software, called CRISP, is currently being tested by Oxford, UK-based, Ultromics Ltd, a leader in AI echocardiography.