Research to Prevent Blindness Opens Applications for Vision Research Grants

NEW YORK – May 6, 2024 – Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) is pleased to announce that it has opened a new round of grant funding for high-impact vision research. With a focus on scientific excellence, RPB funds research across all sight-threatening conditions, including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, inherited retinal diseases, amblyopia, low vision and many more. In this award cycle (one of two award cycles per year), RPB is offering a variety of grants for individual researchers, as well as Unrestricted Grants and Challenge Grants to high-performing departments of ophthalmology. RPB provides a total of approximately $11 million in grant funding annually.  

All award applications for this funding cycle are due July 1, 2024, with nomination forms due no later than June 15. 

“We’re thrilled to offer these prestigious vision research awards that will help to move the needle in terms of supporting the development of treatments, preventives and cures for all conditions that damage and destroy sight,” said Brian F. Hofland, PhD, President of Research to Prevent Blindness. “We recognize that research is a ‘long game’ and it is only through continued, sustained investment that we will continue to make the kind of game-changing progress that we’ve made over the past 64 years.”

The list of individual researcher grants that are currently open is listed below.

RPB Career Development Award
The RPB Career Development Award helps RPB-supported ophthalmology chairs support promising early-career ophthalmology faculty who have demonstrated their potential for independent research (but have not yet received an NIH R01 or equivalent award) with significant research projects. The $350,000 grant is payable for up to four years.

 There are two types of CDAs available in this award cycle:

• The RPB / Tom Wertheimer Career Development Award in Data Science focuses on vision research that uses artificial intelligence and/or data science to gain new knowledge related to sight-threatening conditions.  Where applicable, we strongly encourage inclusion of diverse populations in proposed studies.
• The RPB Career Development Award will not have a specific focus and is open to any topic within vision research.

RPB Career Advancement Award
The RPB Career Advancement Award (CAA) assists outstanding early-career vision scientists in pursuit of ongoing research of unusual significance and promise. This one-time award of $150,000 is available to candidates who have already received their first NIH R01 and are collecting new data to apply for a second R01. This award is open to researchers at any institution of higher education in the U.S.  

There are two types of CAAs available in this award cycle:

• The RPB / David Epstein Career Advancement Award in Glaucoma Research sponsored by Alcon will focus on a research project in glaucoma.
• The RPB Career Advancement Award will not have a specific scientific focus and is open to any topic within vision research.

RPB Physician-Scientist Award
Recognizing the unique contributions of clinician-scientists and their deep commitment to patient care, the RPB Physician-Scientist Award promotes the clinical and/or basic science research of clinicians. This $300,000 award is open to MDs or MD/PhDs at RPB-supported departments of ophthalmology.

There are three types of Physician-Scientist Awards available in this award cycle:

• The RPB / Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative Physician-Scientist Award will focus on cutting-edge retinal research to expand relevant knowledge and to develop methods to preserve and restore visual function in diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and diabetic retinal neurodegeneration (collectively Diabetic Retinal Disease (DRD)). Relevant areas include but are not limited to research related to DRD clinical endpoints and biomarkers, assessments of visual function and patient quality of life, retinal non-perfusion and vascular integrity, neuroprotection, regeneration, as well as related stem-cell research and gene therapy. Innovative proposals that address gaps in research, or address restoration of vision in advanced DRD are encouraged and prioritized.
• The RPB Physician-Scientist Award in Myopia Research will focus on research that seeks to provide a better understanding of the development of myopia and/or how it can be prevented or decelerated. The number of people affected by myopia is now increasing around the world and is projected to affect 50% of the world population by 2050.
• The RPB Physician-Scientist Award will not have a specific scientific focus and is open to any topic within vision research. 

RPB Catalyst Award for Innovative Research Approaches for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
The RPB Catalyst Awards will provide funds to researchers who are working on novel approaches to understanding or treating age-related macular degeneration (AMD).  RPB is partnering with:

• American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF)
• Dr. H. James and Carole Free
• International Retinal Research Foundation (IRRF)

to co-fund up to three Catalyst Awards (one award with each partner) in the amount of $300,000 each. Translational projects – clinically relevant research that could lead to therapeutics or treatment for AMD that is not yet in clinical trials – are encouraged. This award is open to researchers at any institution of higher education in the U.S. 

RPB International Research Collaborators Award
The RPB International Research Collaborators Award promotes international collaborations through which researchers in the U.S. and outside the U.S. gain new knowledge and skills. Under a reciprocal arrangement, supported by this $75,000 grant, a U.S.-based researcher or team will be funded to go for a period of time to an institution outside the U.S. to deepen collaborative relationships with researchers there. In turn, the institution outside the U.S. will send a researcher or team members for a period of time to the U.S. institution. This award is open to researchers at any institution of higher education in the U.S.

RPB Stein Innovation Award – Outside Ophthalmology
The RPB Stein Innovation Award provides $300,000 to two groups of researchers (those inside ophthalmology departments and those outside ophthalmology departments), both with a common goal of understanding the visual system and the diseases that compromise its function. During this award cycle, RPB is accepting applications from researchers outside ophthalmology departments. These awards are intended to provide seed money to proposed high-risk / high-gain vision research that is innovative and cutting-edge. This award is open to researchers at any institution of higher education in the U.S. 

RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship
The RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship allows gifted students to take a year off from allopathic or osteopathic medical school and devote time to the pursuit of a research project within an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology. RPB encourages medical students who are under-represented in medicine and women to apply to these awards to help bring needed diversity to the field of ophthalmology.

Three types of Medical Student Eye Research Fellowships are available in this award cycle:

• The RPB / AOCOO-HNS Foundation Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship for a Student of Osteopathic Medicine will offer one award to a student of osteopathic medicine focusing on any topic in vision research within an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology. Open to students of osteopathic medicine (SOM) only.
• The RPB / Johnson & Johnson Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship will not have a specific scientific focus and is open to any topic in vision research within an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology. Open to students of allopathic medicine (MD) only.
• The RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship will not have a specific scientific focus and is open to any topic in vision research within an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology. Open to students of allopathic medicine (MD) only.

To review more information on any of these grants, including eligibility criteria and application guidelines, please visit the RPB website https://bit.ly/RPBgrants2024.

If you have questions regarding the RPB Grants Program, please contact a member of RPB's Grants Administration team, MariaClaudia Lora-Montano (646-892-9564; mlora@rpbusa.org) or Pattie Moran (646-892-9566; pmoran@rpbusa.org).

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About Research to Prevent Blindness
Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) is the leading nonprofit organization supporting eye research directed at the prevention, treatment or eradication of all diseases that damage and destroy sight. As part of this purview, RPB also supports efforts to grow and sustain a robust and diverse vision research community. Since it was founded in 1960 by Dr. Jules Stein, RPB has awarded more than $413 million in research grants to the most talented vision scientists at the nation’s leading medical schools. As a result, RPB has been associated with nearly every major breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of vision loss in the past 64 years. Learn more at www.rpbusa.org.

May 6, 2024