BioMed Design

The BioMedical Design Novo Nordisk Foundation Fellowship Programme

The BioMedical Design Novo Nordisk Foundation Fellowship Programme constitutes a unique training scheme aimed at developing future leaders of healthcare innovation. Central to the programme is the goal of identifying a critical need, inventing, and implementing new health technologies. The programme further seeks to contribute with new knowledge on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and in particular on how individuals can develop skills and mindsets needed to identify needs and develop innovations within healthcare.

In order to achieve these goals, there is a need for both rigorous analysis of the outcomes of the programme and also an understanding of the processes layered behind them influencing the outcomes. With an ambition of providing a comprehensive effect and outcome analysis, and due to the limited number of participating groups each year, this project principally takes a qualitative approach. More specifically, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and ongoing participant observation, the project will study effects and outcomes of the set-up, training, and support system of the Fellowship at the individual and group level, and for the innovative process and technology.

Therefore, the overall research question is:

How does the set-up, training, and support offered by the BioMedical Design Novo Nordisk Foundation Fellowship Programme affect and shape individual development, group work dynamics and, through these, innovation processes and outcomes?

Participant observation will occur in both the Fellowship’s Aarhus and Copenhagen localities, and will be scheduled around participation principally in key milestone events (incl. candidate assessment day, group composition decisions, bootcamp, and ideation stage), but also observing the ordinary, everyday activities for fellows and programme facilitators.

To ensure in-depth knowledge of the set-up of the programme, approaches to training and support, as well as the lived experiences of the fellows, semi-structured interviews will also be carried out.

The programme has already designed and implemented surveys to measure the profiles, skills and perceptions of fellows. We will elaborate on these surveys to ensure that they complement the interviews and observation work.

The study will run until 2023.