Although OMeGA Medical Grants Association has realigned its fellowship grant cycle to correspond to the fellowship match process, efforts to secure funding commitments in alignment with match decisions have unfortunately been increasingly difficult.

Two donors (Zimmer and Medtronic) support OMeGA’s alignment with the fellowship match process, but most donors are not currently in a position to commit funds 18 months in the future. “Commitment” means companies must have and distribute the funds, typically in the calendar year they agree to the support. Financial and public reporting standards, particularly for publicly traded companies, means that they are not flexible on this issue.

Current fundraising efforts for the 2015–2016 academic year have resulted in additional funding for the 2014–2015 cycle. This funding will be distributed using OMeGA’s ranked list of meritorious programs for each specialty category.

However, this timing does not allow programs to state on the fellowship match application that they have already secured funding—the reason OMeGA made the scheduling change in the first place. Given this, fellowship grants for the 2016–2017 academic year will be awarded in the same calendar year that the fellow is trained.

2016–2017 fellowship grant schedule

• Application period: Fall 2015
• Review period: December 2015–February 2016
• Grant notifications: March/April 2016
• Funds distributed: August 2016

For more information or questions, email info@OMeGA.org

Apply now for CCI grants
OMeGA is currently accepting applications for residency Core Competency Innovations (CCI) grants. Applications will be accepted through April 7 through May 16, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. CDT. For more information or to apply, visit www.omegamedicalgrants.org