MITACS Program: research scholarships at the University of Montreal for UNIL PhD students

The MITACS program enables UNIL PhD students to complete a research stay of 3 to 6 months at the University of Montreal (UofM). All fields of research are eligible. A stay in an institution affiliated to the University of Montreal (e.g. HEC Montreal, Polytechnic School of Montreal) is not possible.

For such a research stay, a scholarship of 6,000 Canadian dollars is available, regardless of the length of the stay. Half of this sum is paid by MITACS, a Canadian not-for-profit organization, which has signed an agreement with the University of Montreal, and the other half by UNIL.

• No enrolment fee is payable to the University of Montreal 
• Stay in one of the leading research universities in the world
• Enlargement of the professional network in a new scientific and cultural environment 
• Exchange program student status and access to student services at the UofM
• Most of the stay is financed by the scholarship.

• Be enrolled as a PhD student at UNIL and remain enrolled throughout the research stay at UofM
• Have a research project while wishing to benefit from the expertise of a researcher from the UofM
• The curriculum attended at UNIL must allow you to stay at the University of Montreal for 3 to 6 months
• Find a research professor at the University of Montreal who agrees to invite you and supervise your research:
  • contact your PhD supervisor at UNIL to see if he·she can put you in touch with a research professor at the University of Montreal
  • refer to the procedure to be followed to enable you to find a supervisor at the University of Montreal
• Payment of transport costs and living expenses (accommodation and food) in Montreal; these costs will be largely covered by the scholarship
• In some cases, you will be required to conclude a specific, separate agreement with the UofM concerning the intellectual property rights resulting from the research activities and the publication and development of such activities
• Obligation to take out a group health insurance plan for the duration of the stay and to pay the premiums (specific UofM health insurance plan)
• Compilation of a report for the attention of MITACS and of Matthias Buess within 4 weeks after the end of the stay (template report available from MITACS) 
• Completion of the application forms (see below).

• Call for applications: launched in the beginning of September 2022
• Deadline for submitting the application forms: 1 March 2023

An application can be sent to us at any time before the indicated deadline. There are two important points to keep in mind: 

• it takes approximately 16 weeks from the time the complete file is submitted and the start of the stay at the UofM
• after the official acceptance of an application by MITACS, you have one year to start your research stay at the UofM. 

Please take note of the important information below before downloading the application forms. The forms 1 and 2 must be sent electronically - completed and signed - to Mr Matthias Buess. You should not send your application directly to Anaïs Détolle (MITACS) or to UofM.  

• Please read carefully the preliminary information in the guide "submitting an application" (this guide is part of the documents to download) 
• In the forms to be filled out, you must describe your project during your research stay at the University of Montreal. Do not describe your thesis in general. It must be consistent with the calendar
• The "Research award adjudication guide" edited by MITACS can be consulted here (currently reviewed, available soon). Please note that this guide refers to "interns", but that UNIL will not consider a PhD student who is selected as an intern
• The stay must be entirely devoted to research – this must be reflected in the forms
• This is a full-time research stay. Therefore, do not mention courses and seminars that will be taken during the stay at UofM
• The different forms can be completed either in English or in French (see the respective version of this website)
• It is not necessary to sign the co-funding document that is mentioned in the guide "submitting an application" (document 3) 
• A PhD student being already in Canada cannot apply for a MITACS scholarship unless he or she returns to his or her country and then departs again for the research stay at the University of Montreal.