Shaffer Grants for Innovative Glaucoma Research are $55,000, one-year grants awarded to scientists and clinicians to fund projects that support new high-impact clinical, epidemiological and laboratory research based on our strategic research goals.
How can we attract diverse research talent to glaucoma science?
Shaffer Grants advisor Janey L. Wiggs, MD, PhD, who helps select candidates for funding, explains why supporting young investigators with new perspectives is essential to discovering better glaucoma treatments and a cure.
Dr. Janey Wiggs discusses Glaucoma Research Foundation
Janey L. Wiggs, MD, PhD: As a Shaffer Grant advisor for the Glaucoma Research Foundation, I review grant applications that are sent in for funding and participate in the scientific review discussion panel for those grants. I’m involved in the field of glaucoma because I’m a glaucoma specialist that takes care of patients with glaucoma.
Taking care of patients with a disease is a great motivator for doing glaucoma research and for thinking about better ways for treating the disease. I have many patients who are always asking me questions like “why don’t these drops work better?” or “why am I still continuing to lose vision?,” and we actually don’t have good answers to those questions. But through glaucoma research we hope to find better treatments that will in fact at least slow the disease progression even more than is currently possible, or even possibly find a way to cure the disease.
I think it would be helpful if more people understood that the Glaucoma Research Foundation is very interested in developing new innovative areas of research, and that this can be accomplished through the pilot projects program (Shaffer Research Grants), that will allow young, new investigators to identify [research] areas that may blossom into bigger fields impacting glaucoma information and research in the future.
End of transcript.
Researchers interested in applying for a Shaffer Grant must first submit a Preliminary Proposal for consideration.
Preliminary Proposals are accepted annually from June 1 to July 15. Applicants will be notified about the status of their proposals by September and those approved to submit a full grant application will receive further instructions.
Grant applicants must possess a graduate degree, not have received a Shaffer Grant within the prior three years, and agree to acknowledge Glaucoma Research Foundation in papers and abstracts resulting from Glaucoma Research Foundation funded research.
Shaffer Grant Focus Areas
There are now two focus areas for Shaffer Grants, one for the physiology of glaucoma and a second to advance the genetics of glaucoma.
When completing your application, please indicate which area is the primary focus of your grant.
Core Values of Shaffer Grants:
Restrictions
Glaucoma Research Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or applications from for profit corporations. Applications sent to our office will not be reviewed or returned.
To submit an application, please login or register for an account.
For additional information on Glaucoma Research Foundation grant programs, please email us.
The Gleams Newsletter includes interviews, personal stories, and current information about glaucoma, new treatments, updates on research findings, and more. You can subscribe to the printed version of Gleams or the electronic version — both are free.
The Gleams Newsletter includes interviews, personal stories, and current information about glaucoma, new treatments, updates on research findings, and more. You can subscribe to the printed version of Gleams or the electronic version — both are free.
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