Funder: Research to Prevent Blindness
Due Dates: January 10, 2027 (Spring application) | July 1, 2027 (Fall application)
Funding Amounts: $380,000 in unrestricted departmental funding; payments can continue for up to four years
Summary: Supports emerging ophthalmology research programs through departmental capacity building, collaborative visual-system studies, and researcher recruitment.
Key Information: Departments must not have received RPB Unrestricted or Challenge support in the last four years.
Description
Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) offers Challenge Grants to encourage the growth of newly emerging eye research programs and support recently appointed chairs at non-grantee ophthalmology departments in university-connected medical schools. The program strengthens the departmental environment and capability for vision research rather than supporting a single disease-specific project.
The grant provides unrestricted departmental funding to facilitate collaborative studies of the visual system and attract researchers to the department. RPB’s departmental grants are allocated by the department chair, giving research-focused departments flexibility to develop their eye research programs. The Challenge Grant emphasizes departments on an upward trajectory, with an established base of high-quality research funding and strong faculty and professional development programs.
