Innovative Resources for Canadian SMEs in a Shifting Economy

Original article by Stephen Lucas, CEO, Mitacs in Canadian SME.

The Canadian economy is evolving, bringing new challenges, but also big opportunities for businesses ready to adapt. Dr. Stephen Lucas shares insights with Canadian SME readers on what it takes to succeed in 2025. By embracing technology, upskilling teams, and forging strategic partnerships with Mitacs’ support, businesses can access top talent and funding to fuel innovation and drive lasting growth.

The economic landscape is shifting: evolving trade conditions, markets fluctuations, and policy changes are creating new challenges across Canada. For small business owners, entrepreneurs, and enterprise leaders, thriving in this environment means taking bold steps to adopt solutions like AI, robotics, and automation, streamline processes, and expand into untapped arenas. It’s the perfect moment to embrace creativity and explore fresh approaches for sustainable growth. In 2025, businesses should consider leveraging advanced technologies to enhance productivity, upskilling teams to stay competitive, and seeking partnerships that open doors to new ideas and markets.

Proven Impact: Mitacs Driving Business Success

As Canada’s innovation organization, Mitacs provides small and medium enterprises with the resources they need to succeed. From digital technology and artificial intelligence to energy and advanced manufacturing, we offer tailored support across a wide range of sectors. For over 25 years, our unique model of fostering strategic partnerships between industry and academia by funding advanced degree internships has delivered research knowledge and top talent directly to Canadian enterprises, successfully driving SME innovation across the country.

Since 2018, Mitacs has invested over $1.2B in innovation, partnering with over 12,000 enterprises to bring 31,000+ projects to life. The results speak for themselves: Mitacs-supported companies experience an average increase of nine percent in total revenue and 16 percent in sales by the third year of partnering with us. Our partners also report an 11 percent boost in productivity—well above the national average of 0.8 percent. These outcomes are driven by collaborations that align business needs with academic expertise, creating tangible value for Canadian enterprises.

At Mitacs, we embrace your business challenges, and work alongside you to integrate ROI into your R&D strategy. Whether your focus includes developing new products, modernizing processes, leveraging data for better decision-making, or improving operational efficiency, we connect you with the right expertise and resources to turn your goals into reality. No matter your ambition, Mitacs is here to help.

Make 2025 the year you take advantage of resources and expertise that have already helped thousands of businesses across Canada innovate and succeed.

Bio

Dr. Stephen Lucas is CEO at Mitacs. An accomplished leader, Dr. Lucas was as a public servant with the Government of Canada for over 35 years. From 2019-2025, he served as Deputy Minister of Health Canada.