ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 23, 2004 -- The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation has announced two new grant programs, one for individual investigators early in their careers and another for leading universities in North America.

Early Career Translational Research Awards in Biomedical Engineering will give up to $200,000 over two years with an optional third-year, $100,000 award. The goal of the program is to support translational research and to help start young investigators in research careers that involve translational research, which aims to transfer technology from the laboratory to commercial development and clinical practice.

Applicants must be full-time, tenure-track faculty members with a primary appointment in biomedical engineering and a rank no higher than assistant professor. Applicants must also have received the doctoral degree no more than six years before submitting an application. The awards will require collaboration with a clinical investigator.

The first deadline for applications is March 15, 2005. All applications must be made on-line. The foundation will post the necessary application materials after Dec. 1 at www.whcf.org.

Translational Research Partnerships in Biomedical Engineering will provide institutional awards of $500,000 a year for up to five years to support translational research projects in partnership with the Coulter Foundation. Each partner institution will also be considered for a substantial endowment to sustain the program.

Applications will be accepted from established biomedical engineering departments or other permanently established programs with their own space and tenure-track faculty positions. The award will establish a partnership between the foundation and the academic institution, with both institutions selecting which research projects to fund. Each individual research project will be a collaboration between a biomedical engineer and a clinical investigator.

The Coulter Foundation will hold an informational meeting Sept. 27 in Atlanta to discuss details of the grant program with interested parties. The first deadline for preliminary applications is Dec. 31. The program announcement with details for submitting an application is currently in press.

The Coulter Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving human healthcare by supporting translational research in biomedical engineering.

For more information about these two programs, contact Coulter Vice President Robert J. Morff, Ph.D., P.E., at (305) 559-2991 or info@whcf.org.