Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA)

Mitacs Globalink Research Award (GRA)

Mitacs GRA placements are facilitated differently than Mitacs GRI placements, as GRA placements are awarded by our pals at the Research Services Office, not International Student and Visitor Services.

As per Mitacs, prospective inbound 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.

If successful, then GRA placements are invited directly by the U of A host professor or department administrator by 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. Please keep reading below for more details.

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. 

The Shared Services HR immigration team is reached via the Staff Service Centre for questions about the invitation process, and their awesome staff will provide instructions on the best pathway to invite an academic visitor.

Mitacs GRA recipients must 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.

For Mitacs GRA, please do not send inquiries to the student service centre portal, as those will eventually be (mis-)directed to ISVS staff, who will have to point you back to the Visitors to the University web page.

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. 

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:

Date modified: 2026-10-21