$10,000 Lab2Market Validate Fellowship

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

• 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