University of California San Francisco

Surgical Innovations Accelerator

Accelerator

The Surgical Innovations Accelerator provides seed funding, engineering support, and personalized consultation and advising to assist promising medical device ideas from UCSF faculty through the product development process towards market availability and patient benefit. The award is supported by our dedicated network of consultants from academia, industry, and venture capital. Award sizes vary based on project needs and availability of funds.

Previous Accelerator projects

Eligibility

  • Applicants: The Surgical Innovations Accelerator is open to any UCSF faculty member with a promising medical device idea or project that, if accepted, is willing to invest the necessary time to work with the Surgical Innovations Program and its Innovation Advisory Board to develop the idea into a marketable product. Non-faculty applicants from UCSF may apply with the support of a faculty member. 
  • Projects: Medical device projects at any stage of development that could benefit from seed funding and specialized advising services are encouraged to apply. The therapeutic area can cover any surgical or medical problem where there is an unmet need or the potential for significant improvement over current treatments, diagnostics, or services.
  • Sustainability: Donations of equity and licensing income resulting from work funded by the Surgical Innovations Accelerator help ensure the future sustainability of the program and funding of future grantees. For Accelerator projects that result in startup creation or licensing agreement, we request that the grantee donate a small share of equity or licensing income back to the Department of Surgery. This requested donation is in addition to any equity or royalties paid by the startup to UCSF to license any patents. 

Review Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following:

  • Compelling unmet clinical need
  • Scientific/technical and development feasibility
  • Likelihood for successfully getting to patients

Applicants who have not previously discussed their project with Surgical Innovations are encouraged to request a consultation with a Surgical Innovations staff member prior to submitting.

Review & Award Timeline

  • Call for applications: There are no open calls currently