Ida Institute Fails to Secure Funding, Scales Down Operations
The Ida Institute, Nærum, Denmark, has been unable to secure future funding and will be significantly scaling back the organization's activities. Established in 2007 with a grant from William Demant Foundation, the Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization working to build a community that embraces person-centered hearing healthcare. Together with clinicians, academics, and people with hearing loss worldwide, Ida has endeavored to help develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to manage hearing loss better.
 "Ida Grant")
The Ida Institute draws on an international network of hearing care clinicians, academics, and people with hearing loss to develop tools and strategies for person-centered care.
According to a press release from the organization, the Institute was in the unique position of receiving full funding from the William Demant Foundation until the end of 2022, with the Foundation giving notice the year before that they had decided to focus fully on contained projects instead. Attempts to secure sufficient funding from other sources have failed to be successful.
The Ida Institute's extensive bank of tools, videos, resources, and online courses is still freely available, and the organization is exploring ways to keep these accessible in the future.
“While we are all extremely sad that the Ida Institute will not continue in its current form, we are also immensely proud of what we have achieved over the last 15 years,” said Associate Director Ena Nielsen in a press statement. “Our learning resources have given thousands of current and future hearing care professionals a unique grounding in the principles and practice of person-centered care, while our global collaborations with professional and consumer partners, universities, and industry, and the practical tools we've created together have helped fuel an astonishing growth in the implementation of this approach.”
 "Ida Institute Learning Hall")
The Ida Learning Hall provides free access to courses in person-centered care and features brief video tutorials, knowledge checks, and exams.
“The landscape is unrecognizable from when we set out in 2007, and we are confident that the future of hearing care is indeed person-centered. Thank you to everyone who has been on the journey with us, not least William Demant Foundation.”
The Foundation has continued to support the Ida Institute during this transition period and remains impressed by the organization's work. “It's been an honor to fund the work of the Ida Institute since its inception,” says William Demant Foundation Chair Lars Nørby Johansen. “We hope that the Ida lnstitute's values of innovation and knowledge-sharing, and its drive to break down barriers between stakeholder groups will live on and continue to influence the world of hearing care.”
Updates regarding the future availability of Ida Institute tools and resources will be issued in the coming months, reports the organization.
