UNO Wins $8M NSF Grant for Healthcare 3D Printing Hub

A Midwest hub for medical 3D printing

The University of Nebraska at Omaha has won an $8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a new research hub for healthcare 3D printing. The Nebraska Center for 3D Innovation, or NE3D, will span multiple campuses and hospitals across the state.

The funding comes from the NSF's E-RISE program, which is designed to strengthen research infrastructure in states that are still building their STEM capacity.

Three focus areas

The center will concentrate on three applications where 3D printing can improve patient care.

Prosthetics and assistive devices top the list. Researchers will try to make limbs that feel more natural and respond faster to user input. Antimicrobial materials come second. The goal is to print devices with built-in protection against bacteria, reducing infection risk for implants and wearable hardware. Third, the team will develop patient-specific anatomical models for surgical planning. By combining medical imaging, AI, and 3D printing, surgeons can rehearse complex operations on exact replicas of their patients' anatomy.

A coordinated ecosystem

NE3D is based at UNO's Biomechanics Research Building, but it pulls in collaborators across the state. Partners include the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC iEXCEL, Children's Hospital Mammel Innovation Center, and several community colleges and K-12 programs.

Industry partner Shabri LLC also joins the effort. Jorge Zuniga, who founded NE3D in 2016, said the grant lets the center move from scattered projects to a structured statewide network.

Education as infrastructure

The grant covers more than hardware and lab space. NE3D will fund graduate and undergraduate research, plus high school outreach. Students will work in biomechanics, soft robotics, computer-aided design, prosthetic development, medical imaging, and AI-enhanced medical technologies.

"What makes NE3D particularly important is that it combines these research areas with education, workforce development, and industry partnerships," Zuniga said. "The long-term goal is not simply to produce individual technologies. It is to build research capacity in Nebraska so that researchers, students, clinicians, educators, and industry partners have the infrastructure and collaborative network needed to develop the next generation of healthcare technologies."

Why this matters

3D printing in healthcare is no longer experimental. Custom implants, surgical guides, and prosthetic sockets are entering mainstream medicine. Most of the development, though, happens at well-funded research hospitals on the coasts.

Nebraska's push signals that the technology is spreading into regions that lack the traditional biomedical clusters. If NE3D delivers, it could produce a model for how midwestern states can build healthcare 3D printing capacity without Silicon Valley or Boston-level budgets.