Image credit: Hugh Bassett

The International Centre for Eye Health is the grateful recipient of several new research grants in 2025:

• A $4.8m grant from Givewell, the Founder’s pledge and Livelihood Impact Fund for a clinical trial which will provide near-vision glasses for adults in Kenya and India, assessing the impact on income and quality of life. Read more about the trial and its aims here

• A £4m grant from NIHR for a clinical trial to test integrating child eye health into primary care in Tanzania and Nepal, and a £200k grant from the Vision Catalyst Fund for scaling up child eye health training in Tanzania, more details on the project here

• Four projects related to artificial intelligence (read more about these projects here):
  • £350k with CBM funded by EKFS for the continuation of a clinical trial to assess whether AI can improve diabetic retinopathy screening outcomes
  • £320k from Velux Stiftung for testing a smartphone-based AI tool for diagnosing corneal infections in Nepal
  • £325k from Velux Stiftung to trial smartphone-based cameras and artificial intelligence image detection for retinopathy of prematurity in Nepal
  • £350k from Velux Stiftung to establish Africa’s first Centre of Excellence for Ophthalmic AI research in Tanzania

• £350k from Velux Stiftung to assess the relationship between vitamin B3 (nicotinamide) and glaucoma in Nigeria (the first study of its kind in low and middle-income countries)

• £140k with CBM funded by EKFS to improve glaucoma detection and management in Tanzania

• $135k from Velux Stiftung to strengthen research capacity in Nepal