National Institutes of Health
National Eye Institute
Minutes of the National Advisory Eye Council
One Hundred Seventy Third Meeting
March 20, 2026
The National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC) convened at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, March 20, 2026. All participants attended virtually. Michael F. Chiang, MD, Director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), presided as Council Chair, and Hyo-Jung (Anna) Han, PhD, served as the Executive Secretary. The meeting was closed to the public for the review of grant and cooperative agreement applications.
CLOSED SESSION
The meeting was closed to the public in accordance with the determination that this session concerned matters exempt from mandatory disclosure under Sections 552b(c)(4) and 552b(c)(6), Title 5, U.S. Code, and Section 1009(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1014). Members absented themselves from the meeting during discussion of and voting on applications from their own institutions or other applications in which there was a potential conflict of interest, real or apparent. Members were asked to sign a statement to this effect.
REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS
NAEC members considered 731 grant and cooperative agreement applications on which NEI was the primary Institute; these applications requested a total of $259,753,494 (direct costs year 01). The Council also considered 502 applications on which another Institute/Center was primary and NEI was secondary. These applications requested a total of $41,357,764 (direct costs year 01). The Council concurred with the Institutional Review Group recommendations on these 1233 applications.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting of the National Advisory Eye Council was adjourned at 10:42 a.m. on March 20, 2026.
CLOSED SESSION ATTENDEES
Council Members Present:
Dr. Michael F. Chiang, Chair
Dr. Hyo-Jung (Anna), Executive Secretary
Dr. Maria B. Grant
Dr. Donald Mutti
Dr. Victor Perez Quinones
Dr. Pradeep Ramulu
NIH Staff Members Present:
Shawn Adolphus
Neeraj Agarwal
Houmam Araj
Sangeeta Bhargava
Rylee Brauer
Nathan Brown
Karen Colbert
Tiffany Coo
k Aurea De Sousa
Kathryn Demott
Donald Everett
Martha Flanders
Ashley Fortress
Shaojian Gao
Alexandra Gavrilovic
Susan Gillmor
Tony Gover
Nataliya Gordiyenko
Steven Henle
Stephanie Kennedy
Jimmy Le
Paekgyu Lee
Renee Livshin
Barbara Mallon
George Mckie
Kiyoharu Miyagishima
Donald Mutti
Lisa Neuhold
Robert O'Hagan
Melanie Reagan
Maryann Redford
Merideth Shifflett
Azadeh Shoaibi
Hongman Song
Joanna Szczepanik
Santa Tumminia
Bronte Williams Washington
Cheryl Wiggs
Charles Wright
CERTIFICATION
We hereby certify that, to the best of our knowledge, the foregoing minutes and attachment(s) are accurate and complete.
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Michael F. Chiang, MD
Chair
National Advisory Eye Council
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Hyo-Jung Han, PhD
Executive Secretary
National Advisory Eye Council