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Funding Opportunities

Explore NEI funding opportunities to find the right one for your project. Start by learning more about our programs and priorities. Then get details on current opportunities and special funding for international and trans-NIH research projects.

female scientist looking through microscope

Learn about NEI's programs and research priorities

NEI supports research that targets the leading causes of blindness and vision impairment — including a broad range of basic and clinical research, clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, research training, and career development.

female scientist using computer

Review current funding opportunities

NIH’s Grants & Funding search page (from the Office of Extramural Research) offers up-to-date information about NIH funding, including all programs that NEI sponsors or participates in.

Rods and cones: Photoreceptors in a human retina

Find AGI funding

The Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine is an effort by NEI to push the boundaries of vision science and restore vision through regeneration of the retina.

Explore funding for international research

Looking for a way to conduct research or get training outside of the United States?

Learn about the Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network (OppNet)

OppNet is a trans-NIH initiative designed to expand funding of basic behavioral and social sciences research. Vision researchers can contribute to the goals of this initiative by collaborating with behavioral and social scientists to study the visual system’s role in complex behavior and social systems.

  • NEI’s Perception and Psychophysics Program Director can answer your questions about getting funding through an OppNet initiative. Call 301-451-2020 or send them an email.

Learn about the NIH Common Fund

Congress created the NIH Common Fund in 2006 for research programs that cut across multiple divisions at NIH — and that no one division could tackle on its own. Common Fund programs focus on urgent NIH priorities, emerging scientific opportunities, and pressing challenges in biomedical research.

Last updated: July 29, 2019