Align Technology expands research award programme into 2015

Align Technology has announced that it will be extending its research award programme into 2015, while increasing the amount of available funding.

Running into a sixth consecutive year for universities in North America and a fifth year for universities worldwide, the scheme is designed to promote clinical and scientific dental research, with a total of $350,000 (220,670 pounds) available.

Awards for 2015 include four one-year awards of $25,000 each for dental research at universities in North America and eight one-year awards of $25,000 each for international institutions.

There are also five one-year awards of $5,000 each for intraoral scanner research at universities globally. These projects will see Align loan the recipient an iTero scanner for one year, or provide an additional $10,000 credit towards the purchase of the device.

John Morton, Align's director of research and technology, said: "With an increasing number of applications each year and excellent quality of the proposed research, this successful programme has become highly competitive."

Last month, the firm announced strong financial results for the third quarter of 2014, with revenues rising by 15.4 percent during the period.