MITACS, the Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence in Mathematical Sciences, is expanding its successful Internship Programme.

During a recent visit to the MITACS headquarters at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Dr Heather Tewkesbury and Dr Keith Winters from the KTN for Industrial Mathematics learned about the success of the MITACS Internship programme, engaging mathematics graduates and postgraduates in short projects with companies.

The MITACS Internship Programme operates across Canada, and was piloted three years ago with just 10 Internships. The mechanism has proved so popular (see media coverage) that this year the target is for over 200 internships across Canada.

The MITACS Internship Programme is an applied research program involving graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, their academic supervisors and participating non-academic partner organisations. Such organisations can include companies, hospitals, government labs and agencies, and not-for-profit societies.

This programme funds interns to undertake research over four to six months on-site with the partner organisation, applying mathematical techniques to research issues and problems arising within the organisation. This research is expected to account for half of the intern's time. The intern spends the remaining time at the University with their supervising Professor, evaluating the best mathematical techniques to address the identified research issues.

In the Canadian model, industry contributes around 40% of the total cost of the internship, and the remainder is provided by public funds.

The MITACS programme has outstanding retention rates - of the Canadian residents who have been interns, 100% have stayed in Canada. Of the foreign interns, 70% have stayed in Canada. Half of the interns have gone on to work in industry, and half of those have worked for the company they did their internship with.

The KTN is currently considering how such a programme could be coordinated in the UK, and gauging the level of interest from companies, academics and students. We would like to hear your views - please contact Dr Heather Tewkesbury.