Who funds medical device research?

We count 68 funded medical device projects, active between 2019 and 2031, from 7 funders. The most came from EU · EIC (12 projects), EU · MSCA (11 projects) and EU · ERC (10 projects). The median award is $2.5M, across the 66 of 68 projects that list an amount.

Funded projects

68

Funders

7

Median award

$2.5M

Open calls now

9

Top funders of medical device research

Projects whose title or summary mentions medical device. Median award: of the projects that list an amount, in US dollars; “—” when fewer than 3 do.

Open medical device funding calls

9 open calls mention medical device today.

• General Medical Devices
  National Science Foundation (SBIR/STTR)Not specifiedDeadline: July 7, 2027 ·
• Medical Devices
  National Science Foundation (SBIR/STTR)Not specifiedDeadline: July 7, 2027 ·
• Pre-commercial procurement of affordable solutions for healthcare systems in the areas of cancer technologies, cancer medical devices, or cancer medicines
  European Commission · Horizon Europe · EU Missions€8,000,000 – €10,000,000Deadline: September 16, 2027 ·
• Catalyze Product Definition Medical Device prototype design/testing and disease target identification and assay development (R61/R33 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: December 23, 2027 ·
• Catalyze: Product Definition Medical Device Prototype Optimization (R33 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: December 23, 2027 ·
• UKRI Translation: MRC Impact Acceleration Awards
  Medical Research Council (MRC)£50,000 – £300,000Deadline: November 11, 2026 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 5 funded (19% · Medical Research Council (MRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25)
• UKRI Translation: MRC Proof of Concept: stage one
  Medical Research Council (MRC)Not specifiedDeadline: November 18, 2026 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 5 funded (19% · Medical Research Council (MRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25)
• Development of Interventions to Prevent and Treat Substance Use Disorders and Overdose (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional)
  National Institutes of HealthUp to $3,000,000Deadline: August 21, 2028 ·
• NEI Translational Research Program for Therapeutics (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedDeadline: Rolling (no fixed deadline listed)

Real odds

• About 1 in 5 funded · 19% · Medical Research Council (MRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25 · UKRI investment and outputs data, table 2.1

Published success rates for the programs behind the open calls above: the share of applications the funder funded, program-wide, not for this topic.

Forecast: announced, not open yet

2 forecast calls on medical device. Funders publish forecasts before a call opens; you can't apply to these yet, and dates can change.

• ForecastHEAL Initiative: Optimization of Therapeutic Medical Devices through Team Science Mechanistic Research (RM1)
  National Institutes of HealthNot specifiedExpected to open June 11, 2026
• ForecastInvite only: Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures R&D
  Medical Research Council (MRC)Up to £4,000,000Expected to open November 5, 2026

Funded medical device projects

A sample, latest start first, at most three per program.

• REU Site: Michigan Semiconductor Hands-On Research Experience (M-SHORE)
  NSF · ENG · $410,186 · ends 2031
• CAREER: Programming Polymer Assembly via Multiscale Molecular Design
  NSF · MPS · $649,998 · ends 2031
• Nickel exposure disrupts Sp1/ZEB1-dependent transcriptional regulation
  NIH · NIEHS · $3,234,310 · ends 2030
• Building a Quality Control Bioanalytical Lab Technician Pipeline Through Biotechnology Education and Industry Partnerships
  NSF · EDU · $427,415 · ends 2029
• HCC: Neural Representations of Elastic Materials
  NSF · CISE · $525,000 · ends 2029
• Predictive Modeling of Sequence-Programmable IDP Brushes for Soft Interfaces
  NSF · ENG · $317,691 · ends 2029
• A Unified, Extensible, and Differentiable Optimization Framework for Conceptual Design of Complex Engineered Systems
  NSF · ENG · $498,496 · ends 2029
• Collaborative Research: Elements: Data-Agent: Agentic AI for Autonomous Data Quality Evaluation, Curation and Task-Aware Dataset Design for Vision-Based Industrial Inspection
  NSF · CISE · $399,967 · ends 2029
• After the Single Use: Rethinking medical devices for reuse, renewal, and resilience
  Wellcome · £5,899,959 · ends 2029
• Extension - Effective regulation and evaluation of digital mental health technologies
  Wellcome · £2,090,789 · ends 2028

How we count

Funded projects come from public award records (NIH RePORTER, NSF, EU CORDIS, UKRI Gateway to Research, Wellcome, the Gates Foundation, DOE, NASA and USDA NIFA) whose title or summary matches “medical device or medical devices”. NIH lists each budget year separately; one project counts once. Amounts are as the funder lists them; medians use only projects that list one, in US dollars. Open calls and forecasts are from our listings of October 28, 2026. A project can mention a topic without being mainly about it, so treat the counts as a guide to who funds the area.