The China Medical Board（CMB）is an independent U.S. foundation, established in 1914 by the Rockefeller Foundation. The mission was to found and facilitate the Peking Union Medical College and its teaching hospital development, promoting western medicine to China. Today, CMB supports health advancement across China and Southeast Asia, with a focus on research and education in medicine, nursing, and public health.

Launched in 2011, the CMB OC Grants Program was designed to support the career development of early and mid-career health professionals in China through theme-based research funding. Through a rigorous, merit-based peer review process that identified scholars with strong potential for independent, research-intensive careers, the program awarded more than 210 grants totaling over US$17 million across clinical medicine, public health, health policy, and other related fields over 15 annual cycles, playing a pivotal role in nurturing young academic talent in China’s health sector.

In line with CMB’s ongoing commitment to fostering academic exchange and collaboration between health professionals from China and the U.S. amid the evolving global health landscape, CMB has established the annual program as the CMB Seed Grants for Bilateral Learning Program (BLP). The new title more fully reflects the initiative’s core purpose: to support bidirectional learning, reciprocal knowledge sharing, and sustainable collaborative partnerships between the next generation of medical and health leaders in China 1 and the U.S., while co-developing innovative, practice-oriented solutions to shared health challenges faced by both nations. The application framework was designed to support two Principal Investigators (PIs), one from China and one from the U.S., who are part of either an on-going or newly formed collaboration. Approved projects received a total grant of US$100,000, allocated equally between the two PIs.