McMaster University (in partnership with Lab2Market)Fellowship

$10,000 Lab2Market Validate Fellowship

Nov 24, 2026 23:59:00 ET

Opportunity type

Fellowship

Funding

Fully Funded

Location

Canada

Deadline

Nov 24, 2026 23:59:00 ET

About this opportunity

Lab2Market Validate is Canada's national research commercialisation programme, and McMaster University is delivering its Ontario cohort starting in May 2027. Teams made up of a graduate researcher and their faculty supervisor spend four months full time testing whether their research has a real market, and the student receives a $10,000 stipend. The programme is free and runs virtually.

What you get:

$10,000 paid to the student lead as a stipend over the programme, half from Lab2Market and half matched by Mitacs through a Business Strategy Internship grant
A market validation curriculum delivered by innovation leaders
Access to advisors, industry experts and funders, and a national entrepreneurial network
No cost to take part

What you'll do:

Work on the project full time for four months, at least 25 hours a week
Move through three phases: a pre-programme on deep-tech entrepreneurship and market research methods, a core programme of customer and stakeholder interviews, and a post-programme analysis
Carry out up to 100 or more stakeholder interviews and write a market assessment report
Decide a path forward: start a company, license the technology, keep researching the market, or continue the research in academia

Key dates:

Information sessions October 7, 2026 (5:00 to 6:00 PM EST) and November 5, 2026 (1:00 to 2:00 PM), both virtual
Applications close November 24, 2026 at 11:59 PM EST
Selected teams are interviewed, then complete a Mitacs BSI grant application
Programme starts May 3, 2027

More information:

Lab2Market Validate Applicant Information Package, linked from lab2market.ca/validate
McMaster's Lab2Market page lists the cohort and information sessions: entrepreneurship.mcmaster.ca/lab2market
Questions to Sydney Valentino, Lab2Market Program Manager at McMaster (valens@mcmaster.ca), or validate@lab2market.ca

Who can apply

Apply as a team of an Entrepreneurial Lead and a Technical Lead
Entrepreneurial Lead: a full-time Masters or PhD student, a postdoctoral fellow with under 5 years of service, or a recent graduate within two years of graduation at the start of the project; college students are also eligible
Technical Lead: the principal investigator of the research project, tri-council funding eligible
The project must be based on research by the Entrepreneurial Lead and funded through the Technical Lead's lab
This cohort is for researchers at universities and colleges in Ontario
The application includes a video of up to 5 minutes from the student lead: a 2 minute plain-language summary of the project and 3 minutes on what they hope to discover
The student lead must be able to work full time, at least 25 hours a week, for the four months

AI Verification

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Good to know

+A $10,000 stipend for the student lead
+Four months testing whether your research has a real market, with coaching, online
+Free, and part of a national programme running since 2019

Worth checking yourself

!For graduate students, postdocs and recent graduates at Ontario universities and colleges, applying with their faculty supervisor
!McMaster's page prints the deadline as 24 November 2027; Lab2Market's own page says 24 November 2026, so work to 2026
!Full time, at least 25 hours a week, from May 2027
!The stipend depends on a Mitacs grant approved after the interview

Sources checked

LAlab2market.caApplyENentrepreneurship.mcmaster.caOfficialAIairtable.comOfficialCAcanva.comOfficialDRdrive.google.comOfficial

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