Research to Prevent Blindness’ mission and leadership makes the eyecare of today—and tomorrow—possible.
For decades, RPB grants have provided funding to create new discoveries in vision science. Learn about our current grants, as well as our exceptional grantees.
What do we know about common eye diseases? Find out here, in RPB’s new Learning Center for patients and families.
Visit our Media Center for timely updates—in text and video formats—on emerging research and vision science news.
Your support makes our vision-saving work possible! There are many ways to engage with RPB.
Dry eye is a chronic medical condition that develops when the eye's tear film does not lubricate and protect the eye's outer surface.
The Career Advancement Award assists outstanding early-career vision scientists in pursuit of ongoing research of unusual significance and promise. This one-time award is available to candidates who have already received their first NIH R01 and are collecting new data to secure a second R01.
The award is open to any Assistant or Associate Professors (MDs, PhDs, or MD/PhDs) in any department from any institution of higher education in the U.S. Candidates must have their first NIH R01 with at least one year remaining by the application deadline.
The candidate can be a multiple principal investigator (MPI) on their first R01. However, if the candidate has their first R01 and is an MPI on another R01, the candidate is not eligible.
Applicants must be nominated by their Ophthalmology Department Chair. Please note: applications received without a prior nomination form will not be accepted. Candidates can access the nomination and application forms below.
Each RPB grant has different eligibility criteria, which is detailed on the relevant grant webpage. If you have questions about the eligibility details, please reach out to us; we’re happy to help.
While a few of our RPB grants (RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship, RPB Career Development Award, and the RPB Physician-Scientist Award) are restricted to departments that have an RPB Unrestricted or Challenge grant, the majority of our grants are open to researchers at any academic medical center in the U.S.
The reason that the three grants mentioned above are restricted to RPB-supported departments is that our Departmental Grantees undergo an extremely rigorous peer-review process. The environment and leadership at these departments have met our stringent criteria and are appropriate venues for the research being conducted by these early- and mid-career researchers, giving us assurance that they will receive outstanding support.
If you are not sure if your department has a Departmental Grant, visit our current grantees here.
No, all of our grants are awarded to researchers or departments of ophthalmology at U.S.-based academic medical centers. The RPB International Researcher Collaborators Award supports collaboration between U.S. and outside-the-U.S. researchers; however, the award is made to the U.S. academic medical center, which can then disperse the funds as needed to support the project collaboration.
For Financial Reports and Progress Reports, please contact Director of Grants Management MariaClaudia Lora-Montana (mlora@rpbusa.org). For Year-End Reports (photos, research summaries and bibliographies), please contact Jo Casella (jcasella@rpbusa.org).
We love to help promote our grantees’ work! Please reach out to Director of External Affairs Diana Friedman (dfriedman@rpbusa.org or 646-892-9565) to share your good news.
Contact us for more details!
MariaClaudia Lora-Montano
Director of Grants Management