On March 4, 2019, Dean Martin and President Spisso shared an announcement with the UCLA Health community regarding the below opportunities in Innovation at UCLA Health. Information about the recently launched UCLA Health Innovation website also was shared. The website's goal is to convene and connect UCLA's innovative community with resources and commercialization opportunities in partnership with the UCLA Technology Development Group. This website lists funding opportunities for innovation, and aggregates innovation resources, such as the Technology Development Group and links to the UCLA Invention Disclosure Report. It also highlights innovation stories from UCLA Health from the past year. Faculty, nurses, staff and trainees are encouraged to share any additional or new innovation stories by sending them to UCLAHealthInnovation@mednet.ucla.edu.
2019 UCLA Health Innovation Challenge
The 2019 UCLA Health Innovation Challenge is a new competition for funding to support projects in five areas that will advance our mission of advancing patient care: Medical Technology/Digital Health; IT Support for Care Efficiency; Patient Experience (CICARE); Performance Improvement; and Greatest Idea. Prizes include support of up to $100,000 in seed funding. More information on the categories is also available on a short video. The deadline for submission of proposals is May 1 2019, and has varied categories so that we may hear from our entire community. Questions about the competition may be sent to Desert Horse-Grant at dhorsegrant@mednet.ucla.edu.
UCLA Biodesign Program
The recently announced inaugural UCLA Biodesign program, a collaboration between UCLA Health, the CTSI and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is also accepting applications for the first class of medicine, engineering and business fellows, with a deadline of March 8, 2019. These interdisciplinary fellows will be supported during the 2019-2020 academic year to leverage expertise in medicine, business and engineering to design and develop projects to advance clinical care.
2019 UCLA Innovation Fund Competition & 2019 Biomedical Competition
Another funding opportunity in innovation, the 2019 UCLA Innovation Fund Competition offers up to $200,000 in funding for novel therapeutic and novel medical technology projects, with a submission deadline of March 31 2019. This funding opportunity is organized by the UCLA Technology Development Group (TDG) and is a collaboration between UCLA Health, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Dentistry, and the College Divisions of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences. All UCLA faculty from all Schools who have signed the UCLA patent policy are eligible to apply.
On March 6, 2019, Associate Vice Chancellor for the Technology Development Group Amir Naiberg announced that the UCLA Innovation Fund is also accepting applications for the 2019 Biomedical Competition. For more details and information about this competition, please refer to the BruinPost AVC Naiberg shared.
