Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA)

Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA)

As per Mitacs, prospective applicants for the Globalink Research Award (GRA) are advised to first contact the local Mitacs advisor Mr. Vinay Gupta before starting to develop a project. His current contact information is listed on that linked webpage.

GRA placements are invited directly by the host professor or department administrator submitting an FVCA to central U of A HR Immigration Services staff, not ISVS. Campus registration procedures are also the responsibility of the inviting professor. 

ISVS staff do offer general visiting international student settlement services to GRA participants, such as new intern orientations and other ISVS Programs & Events. More information can be found below.

Invitation Process & Pre-Arrival Steps

For the Mitacs Accelerate or Globalink Research Award (GRA) programs, please direct any invitation, immigration, and on-campus registration questions to the U of A Staff Service Centre contact form and their staff will provide instructions on the best pathway to invite an academic visitor.

Mitacs GRA recipients should be invited to the University by the host professor or a designated administrator in their department using the Foreign Visitor process outlined on the Shared Services Visitors to the University web page.

The Shared Services HR immigration team can be reached via the Staff Service Centre if you have questions about the invitation process. 

As outlined on the Visitors to the University page, in order to ensure that the visiting researcher you are planning to invite is given the proper documents to start the immigration application process, the host professor or someone from the host department should complete the Foreign Visitor Category Assessment (FVCA) which will be reviewed by the Shared Services immigration team. The visiting researcher will need to provide some information such as passport number, citizenship, date of birth, so that the FVCA can be completed.

This Settlement Services page should be shared with the GRA student recipient to help with the preparations to travel to Canada.

Campus Registration After Arrival

The Foreign Visitor Arrival section explains what the faculty member or host department needs to do to register the GRA visitor on campus. This includes the creation of a guest CCID for the visitor so that they can obtain a ONEcard and have some library privileges. Please view the Resources for Academic Visitors page to understand what benefits they can access while on campus.

Academic Visitors who are at the University of Alberta for 12 months or less should apply for the University of Alberta Health Insurance Plan for the duration of their stay to ensure that they have adequate coverage in the event of a medical emergency.

International Student + Visitor Services Supports

After the GRA recipient's arrival on campus, International Education & Enrolment is happy to provide social and settlement supports in a variety of ways. GRA recipients are welcome to attend an Intern Orientation for recently-arrived academic visitors, where they will become more familiar with U of A services and meet other visiting research interns. Upcoming sessions can be found on the ISVS Programs & Events page.

Visiting researchers are also welcome to participate in one of our Research Symposiums should the timing work out with one happening during their stay. Host faculty and departments are kindly asked to encourage visiting researchers to subscribe to our events newsletter via this events page so that they learn of social events and cultural programming options to expand their network while on campus.

Should you have any further questions about Mitacs Accelerate or the Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA) programs, please feel free to contact Mitacs directly: