University of Arizona FORGE Launches Biomedical Scholarship

Oct. 12, 2022

A first-of-its-kind biomedical entrepreneur opportunity for Summer 2023

Scholarship Opportunity: Available to full-time UA undergraduates in any program. Create a startup that improves patient outcomes through tech or processes. Covers tuition for one year!

FORGE is proud to announce the launch of its Biomedical Entrepreneur Startup Scholarship and Residency. This program is part of FORGE’s commitment to applying proven entrepreneurial support, innovation, and commercialization services while catalyzing and stewarding the growth of biomedical companies at the University of Arizona Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building (BSPB) in Phoenix and at FORGE at Roy Place in Tucson.

The new scholarship and residency program is open to full-time University of Arizona undergraduate students, in any academic program, with an interest in creating a biomedical startup. This includes any startups that focus on technologies or processes to advance services and health in the industry to ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Three Biomedical Entrepreneur scholarships will be awarded to current full-time undergraduate University of Arizona students. The scholarship award covers University of Arizona tuition for Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. Under the program, scholarship recipients take part in a specialized 13-week FORGE summer program and a 15-week paid residency in the Fall semester with an opportunity to continue into the Spring.

Students will have access to FORGE resources at BSPB in Phoenix and FORGE at Roy Place in Tucson and will meet regularly with experienced biomedical Mentors in Residence (MiRs) to create custom development plans and develop guided pathways to accelerate scale-up and launch for their biomedical startup. The MiRs will collaborate with each founder to create a custom development plan. The students will meet regularly with the MiRs to help guide the venture's maturity path. As part of the program, students will gain access to FORGE meeting spaces, board rooms, community resources, and mentor network.

The scholarship and residency program is possible thanks to the generosity of a long-time supporter and alum of the University of Arizona, Harry Wilcox. Wilcox is a General Partner at Flagship Pioneering and has an extensive history of working in venture capital, life sciences, and sustainability.

“My hope for the scholarship program is to support future entrepreneurs who will apply innovation to solve some of the important problems society faces,” said Wilcox. 

Students can apply online at forge.arizona.edu/biomed Applications are due October 28, 2022.