UC Berkeley ENSURE Program Launches to Address Healthcare Equity

Recognizing that mental health is often overlooked in communities without access to affordable healthcare, the University of California, Berkeley, recently launched a novel program through its Neurotech Collider Lab that will focus on bridging this gap. The Equitable Neurotech Solutions for Underserved Regions Everywhere (ENSURE) program is a 16-week course designed to empower undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers to develop neurotech solutions that combine healthcare and technology to benefit society. This initiative is supported by the Dana Foundation’s NextGen program, which aims to inspire the next generation of interdisciplinary experts to address societal challenges through neuroscience and neurotechnology research and development.

Neurotechnology is a growing area of research that has the potential to address mental health needs. The ENSURE program will promote a dynamic approach to healthcare, encouraging students to address complex issues by integrating diverse fields such as data science, business, policy, the arts, social sciences, and clinical research into their studies. Working together, student teams will develop a conceptual prototype of a neurotechnology—such as a mental health app that tracks symptoms—that may one day become a real product.

“The Foundation is thrilled to support an interdisciplinary course of this nature that brings together trainees from across career stages and disciplines to work together on addressing one of the biggest challenges we face as a society,” says Ishan Dasgupta, program officer of the Dana NextGen program.

“The collaborative nature of the class highlights a key aim of the Dana NextGen program—to encourage trainees to learn from perspectives they may not ordinarily get as part of their normal curriculum. The hope is that these interactions will not only enrich the educational experience for students, but it will also lead to better neurotechnology.”

Through the ENSURE program, students will have the opportunity to transform theoretical ideas into actions, while emphasizing the need for sustainable and culturally sensitive solutions.

To learn more about the course, which begins in January of 2025, please visit the Neurotech Collider Lab’s website.