Georgia Tech Foundation Endowment Seed Grant
Funded by gifts from myriad donors, the Georgia Tech Foundation, its Board of Trustees, officers and staff foster and manage gifts given in support of academic excellence in the spirit and traditions of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
In 2012, Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson and the Foundation’s board endowed $8.5 million of Foundation resources to fund seed grants to be administered by Georgia Tech Pediatric Technologies for the purpose of achieving our stated mission with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
There are three types of project types funded by seed grants from this endowment: general, app development and nursing.
General seed grants promote collaborations between Georgia Tech scientists and engineers and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta clinicians in the solving of problems that impact the healthcare of children. This effort is funded by the Georgia Tech Pediatric Research Endowment. Any topic on pediatric healthcare is eligible for submission, with preference given to seed grant proposals that target large, center grants.
App Development seed grants support the development of smartphone apps and related software for implementation in the clinic or at home with the patient. Grant awardees will be advised by Morgan Greenleaf, with the Emory School of Medicine, to tackle a clinical problem using a patient centered design and development process.
Nursing seed grants are made to stimulate new projects through sharing of ideas and building new collaborations and providing support for nursing ideas that may translate to new products for care, as well as for better workflow through process improvement of identifying trends in practice through evaluation of data.
Department of Nursing Research and EBP for Nursing and Allied Health, in partnership with Georgia Tech, will fund a seed grant to a Nursing – GA Tech team to develop and implement project ideas that may translate to improved quality and safety in pediatric patient care.
Funding decisions are made by committee. Those committee members include: subject matter experts, clinicians, engineers, scientists and others with successful medtech commercialization experience representing Georgia Tech and its formally recognized affiliates, CHOA and the Emory Department of Pediatrics. Final funding decisions are made by Georgia Tech Pediatric Technologies and CHOA.
Imlay Innovation Fund
In 2016, “The Imlay Foundation made a $5 million grant — the largest in its 25-year history — to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech to help fund the development of pediatric therapies.
“Mary Ellen Imlay is a longtime board member of Children’s. She explained that the gift was one important way to honor her husband, by creating an endowment that will support the Imlay Innovation Fund in perpetuity.
The Imlay Innovation Fund is intended solely to support collaborative activities and pediatric innovation and discovery efforts between Georgia Tech and Children’s, focusing on practical steps that will lead to clinical impact.
Proposals should focus on solving a problem that will impact care delivery and/or has the potential to positively impact child health. Approaches may include human factors engineering, predictive modeling, development of devices and technologies, and other novel approaches to address healthcare problems.
Two types of projects are eligible for Imlay Innovation funding: Quick Wins and Innovation Investment. Quick Wins supports projects that can be accomplished in 12-18 months and can be quickly translated into practice. Innovation Investment is intended to help bridge the funding gap that often blocks the next phase of implementation or commercialization after initial proof of concept. Innovation Investment awards should allow investigators to collect much-needed data, complete further proof-of-concept studies, or to produce prototypes for testing in order to effectively compete for extramural or investment funding.
The Imlay Foundation made an additional gift of $3 million in 2020 for projects implemented and supported by Georgia Tech Pediatric Technologies.
Funding decisions are made by committee. Those committee members include: subject matter experts, clinicians, engineers, scientists and others with successful medtech commercialization experience representing Georgia Tech and its formally recognized affiliates, CHOA and the Emory Department of Pediatrics. Final funding decisions are made by Georgia Tech Pediatric Technologies and CHOA.
The Imlay Foundation reviews funding submissions and makes recommendations for projects to be funded, but its representatives do not ‘vote’ as it relates to final funding decisions.
