IBM Canada’s headquarters will welcome more interns after the province committed $17 million to place university  students at Ontario businesses during the next four years.

About 1,750 students are expected  to gain valuable experience through ACCELERATE Ontario by applying their research skills to real-life challenges.

All university faculties are eligible, including engineering, urban planning, political science, geography, mathematics, business, environmental studies, architecture, veterinary studies, biology and computer science.

The program requires graduate student researchers spend a minimum of 50 per cent of their time over a four month-period at a company, undertaking research on a problem jointly identified by the intern, business  and a supervising professor.

The balance of the students’ time is spent at the university, developing new tools, technologies or methods to address the company’s challenge.

The cost of an internship is $15,000, which is shared by the partner company and the Ontario government.