The unrestricted Challenge Grant is one of only six awarded, nationwide
The Emory Eye Center and Department of Ophthalmology are pleased to announce that Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has recognized our Research Division with an unrestricted, four-year, $300,000 Challenge grant.
The Eye Center received one of just six Challenge grants that were awarded by RPB in 2022. The funds will allow department chair Dr. Allen Beck to strengthen the school's commitment to ground-breaking translational research. Under the terms of the grant, Emory Eye Center will receive $75K a year to support its research mission, including research salaries, new equipment, lab supplies, data analysis, and the ongoing exploration of new research agendas. Those funds will be matched with an annual $75K grant from the Emory School of Medicine.
More than anything else, the RPB Challenge grant gives us the freedom to do good science. The job of a truly committed eye research team is to produce findings that result in improved vision for our patients,
said Beck, the F. Phinizy Calhoun, Sr. Chair of Ophthalmology.
The 2022 RPB Challenge grant - and the many that came before it - have given our researchers the chance to take smart risks when the science calls for them. Over the years, that flexibility has put our research teams in the position to collaborate with other cutting-edge investigators when the time is right. It is one of the most important investments we can make for our patients, our physicians, and the future of vision health.
Over the course of 30+ years, the Emory Eye Center has received more than $3M from RPB - funds that have allowed the school to continually attract top-notch research talent and to build and maintain state-of-the-art facilities.
The 2022 Challenge grant will propel EEC's overall research efforts in a variety of areas, including diseases that impact the retina/macula, ocular oncology, infectious diseases, and glaucoma / optic neuropathies. Research director Dr. John Nickerson said some funds will support a series of mini-research proposals - pilot projects that will expand basic science and launch new avenues for long-term research. He plans to solicit internal proposals beginning September 1.
These grants encourage our post-docs, grad students, and research faculty to forge stronger links between their basic and translational studies in the laboratory and our mission to improve vision health,
he said. They are enough to test some key hypotheses and to keep our team agile in their pursuit of new breakthroughs.
Since its founding, RPB has channeled more than $397M into eye research nation-wide. Their investment links RPB with nearly every major breakthrough in vision research for the past 60 years.
-Kathleen E. Moore