Grants of $9,000 are available to students, in the form of a $5,000 Stage 1 E-Team Grant plus $4,000 for travel and collaboration with international peers.
Accepted teams will also have opportunities for mentorship and networking during a virtual version of VentureWell’s Pioneer workshop, the E-Team training for Stage 1 grantees.
Faculty will receive $4,000 travel grants to participate in global BME partner site visits, conferences, trainings, and/or advising opportunities.
The program aims to build strong partnerships between US-based and global BME design and innovation programs, including exchanges of faculty, students, resources, and best practices and foster the development of US-trained leaders in BME design and innovation who understand the challenges of teaching and practice in this field around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Africa and Latin America.
The Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Alliance (BME-IDEA) is a consortium of leading faculty at over 150 institutions who are committed to sharing best practices in teaching innovation, design, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship. The Whitaker Foundation has supported interdisciplinary medical research, with a focus on biomedical engineering since 1975. The Foundation developed the Whitaker International Program to support the development of future biomedical engineering (BME) leaders with an international perspective and to create connections between the US and global BME community.