Science and Technology Awards

Funding Agency:
CooperVision

CooperVision is dedicated to raising the bar on product excellence and creating the next generation of contact lenses. To accomplish this, we maintain a strong commitment to advanced research and development.

The goal of the Science and Technology Award Program is to bring award recipients and CooperVision scientists together to explore new areas of technology advancement. Proposals should demonstrate significant potential for research discoveries within CooperVision key focus areas for 2021. We recognize and highly value the need to find the best ideas that have the potential to deliver benefits to people across the globe.

Research proposals may span proof-of-concept through translational stages. For this purpose, two types of awards are offered:

CooperVision Seedling Award
The CooperVision Seedling Award is intended to incentivize collaborations with CooperVision in a new research area for a one-year period. The maximum total cash amount for a CooperVision seedling is $100,000.

CooperVision Translational Research Award
The CooperVision Translational Research Award is a multi-year award for a substantive translational research project with funding over two years, totaling up to $400,000.

Deadline for Letter of Intent: June 23, 2023

Agency Website

Areas of Interest

The key focus areas for 2023 are:

Understanding Childhood Myopia Development

  • Pathogenesis, mechanisms, and risk factors

Technologies to Prevent Myopia Onset, including:

  • Prophylactic technologies
  • Proposals for glasses, contact lenses, interactive, and combination therapies

Strategies to prevent development of symptomatology in new contact lens wearers, with emphasis on:

  • Diagnosis and early intervention therapies for new lens wearers
  • Understanding biochemical changes in newly fitted contact lens wearers over time
  • Controlled release technologies for delivery of beneficial agents, as well as approaches to improve moisture retention

Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Contact Lens Fitting and Diagnostics, including:

  • ChatGPT , Bard, etc. – Applications for Optometry and Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)

Eligibility Requirements

Any researcher with Principal Investigator (PI) status holding a MD, OD, or PhD is eligible to apply. Applicants, such as postdoctoral fellows, with a waiver of PI status must submit appropriate documentation before funding can be received.

Funding Type

Award
Grant

Eligibility

Faculty
Junior Faculty
Medical Fellow/Resident
Post Doctoral Fellows

Category

Medical
Medical - Basic Science
Medical - Clinical Science
Medical - Translational

External Deadline

June 23, 2023