The National Eye Institute (NEI) supports investigator-initiated, complex, multi-center and other high resource risk epidemiologic studies under the cooperative agreement mechanism, UG1 activity code. Specifically, the purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support new and innovative ocular epidemiology research.The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support epidemiologic studies that utilize creative and innovative approaches to studying vision diseases and disorders with high public impact and whose findings will inform prevention and treatment strategies as well as basic sciences research.

Background:

Clinical vision research projects, including epidemiologic studies, are part of NEI’s core strategy for improving visual health and decreasing visual impairment in populations through research on the burden of disease, its causes, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

Projects should focus on NEI’s mission to protect and improve visual health including, but not limited to:

Determining the burden of eye diseases and their visual outcomes in a changing population, particularly disparities in the burden and the influences of sociocultural, environmental, economic, and demographic factors.
Improving early diagnosis of ocular diseases and their underlying processes through new screening and detection strategies.
Determining risk factors for ocular diseases.
Identifying and assessing strategies that will overcome barriers to eye care and convert evidence-based findings into improved patient and population outcomes.
Studying the interplay of factors that exacerbate or mitigate risk for eye diseases.
The NEI encourages applications to support ocular epidemiologic research. These projects are supported under the cooperative agreement mechanism.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Scientific/Research staff as plans for an application are being developed (see Section VII, Agency Contacts), preferably no later than 12 weeks prior to the anticipated application submission date.