2023 Focus Areas
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)
Award Types
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.
Applicant Eligibility
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.
To Apply
Submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI)
Applicants must submit a LOI before June 23, 2023. If the LOI is accepted, applicants will be notified and invited to submit a full proposal.
Proposal Submission
Upon approval of the LOI, applicants may submit a full proposal. The complete proposal must be submitted by the deadline September 22, 2023.
Please note that animal model proposal studies will not be accepted for 2023 Science & Technology Awards
Please contact STAward@coopervision.com with questions.
CooperVision will make an effort to limit access to the LOIs and full proposals to CooperVision employees involved in implementing the Science & Technology Award. However, due to the numbers received, CooperVision will not enter into a confidentiality agreement as a condition for receipt of a LOI or full proposal. Therefore, applicants should take care to exclude confidential information from their submissions.