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Unilever Partners with Mitacs to Accelerate AI Innovation

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The partnership will help build talent pipeline

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Toronto, Canada (June 5, 2024) - Unilever’s Horizon3 Labs announced a new partnership with Mitacs this week to continue investing in academic partnerships and talent in Canada. With a combined total investment of up to CAD $8M (€5.4M) from both organizations, the program is designed to find 100 researchers at various stages in their academic careers to deliver Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology-driven business solutions.

The researchers will work on four main projects:

  • Inventory and Demand Forecasting
  • Supply-chain Solutions
  • Graph machine-learning in business
  • Generative AI applications

Last year, Unilever announced the opening of its global AI Lab, Horizon3 Labs, in Toronto. The Lab is part of Unilever’s prioritization of digital transformation and technology investment. Unilever is putting up to CAD $4M (€2.7M) funding towards the program, which Mitacs will match at 100%, over the next two years.

Mitacs works with academia, government, and public and private sectors to drive innovation and is recognized for its wide network of partnerships. Mitacs makes investing in new knowledge easier through access to top researchers, flexible project plans, and co-investments in talent. The Canadian organization is well-positioned to help widen Unilever’s reach for solution-driven projects that can be scaled and shared across its business globally.

Mitacs is proud to partner with Unilever and play a role in their trailblazing commitment to technology-driven business solutions. Since 2019, Mitacs has supported over 1500+ connections with partners focused on working with AI, translating into a $200M+ investment in AI research and development. Our work with Unilever is a prime example of the innovation made possible when research talent and industry come together.

John Hepburn, CEO, Mitacs

It is a very exciting time for Unilever’s new era of AI adoption – we currently have hundreds of applications of AI across disciplines. Through our partnership with Mitacs, we are looking forward to working with distinguished academic researchers in Canada to continue our technology innovation journey.

Gary Bogdani, Unilever Head of Horizon3 AI Labs
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