AO Dialogue 1|14 The newsletter for the AO community
The AO Strategy Fund The funding process for supporting important new strategic initiatives within the AO
Olga Harrington, AO Dialogue Launched on December 19, 2013, the AO Strategy Fund has an annual budget of CHF 5 million until 2016. According to Rolf Jeker, CEO and Vice-Chair AO Foundation Board, “Innovation is of the essence and in the last three years our priorities were governance and spending priority changes as well as efficiency measures to reduce overhead; we are now looking to innovation and quality enhancements of which the AO Strategy Fund is one example. This initiative allows us to evaluate the latest trends in technologies to assess what AO needs in the future”. The broad scope of this initiative means that all AO members and employees are eligible to apply for
funding in their own name or on behalf of AO boards, steering committees, commissions or other AO units. The AOFB, who approved the launch of the Strategy Fund and are responsible for evaluating the applications, are eager to finance proposals which are: •
New services, new technologies and
unmet needs
•
New projects enhancing the organiza-
tion’s visibility and brand
•
New ideas to foster cooperation across
Clinical Divisions
•
New initiatives which enhance opera-
tional effectiveness and efficiency
Table of contents AO Strategy Fund My view, James Kellam AO President’s interview From the AO Clinical Divisions
continued on page 2
From the AO Institutes
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