Bunn has a PhD in medical science (physics) and has been involved in health technology research and development, and specifically medical device innovation, for nearly 40 years. Whilst a researcher at the Stellenbosch Medical School in 1984 his spin-out company developed and commercialised the world’s first, portable lung function system. He was subsequently professor and acting head of the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Cape Town and extra-ordinary professor at the Central University of Technology in the Free State. Bunn started the Innovation Centre at the Medical Research Council in 2004 that became the Strategic Health Innovation Partnership in 2013. His academic research (in addition to scientific publications and postgraduate supervision) led to five successful, start-up health technology companies and one international company all based on novel medical technologies that he was instrumental in developing. He also co-founded the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association in 2001.

He is currently a health innovation consultant to PATH (SA) to help grow PATH’s health technology impact in Africa as well as the MRC-PATH global health innovation accelerator for advancing transformative maternal and child health technologies with concomitant growth of the local medical device manufacturing sector in South Africa.