Submissions invited for research awards

CooperVision is now accepting submissions for its 2023 Science and Technology Awards programme, designed to foster continuous advancement in contact lens research and development. 

The awards programme “extends the path to innovation outside of our own organisation, providing opportunities to some of the brightest minds in the field to pursue research and make progress toward solving the vision challenges for which they are most passionate,” said Francis Erard, CooperVision vice president of research and development.

Submissions will be considered for the following subjects:

• Understanding childhood myopia development, including pathogenesis, mechanisms, and risk factors
• New methods to prevent the onset of myopia, including prophylactic technologies and novel proposals for glasses, contact lenses, interactive and combination therapies
• Strategies to prevent the development of symptomatology in new contact lens wearers, with an emphasis on diagnosis and early intervention therapies, understanding biochemical changes in newly fitted wearers over time, and controlled release technologies for delivery of beneficial agents, as well as approaches to improve moisture retention
• The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on contact lens fitting and diagnosis, including applications for optometry and orthokeratology (ortho-k) with technologies such as ChatGPT, Bard, and more

Since 2014, the CooperVision programme has made grants totalling more than US$2m to investigate a wide variety of topics that have led to notable advancements in product design and development, as well as to directly inform approaches in clinical care. For example, research exploring causes and treatment for contact lens discomfort conducted by two past awards recipients has resulted in widespread citations from professional peers.

Dr Laura Downie, Associate Professor in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne, built on findings from her award-funded contact lens discomfort research to pursue additional studies to increase knowledge on this topic.

Dr Ping Situ, Associate Scientist at the Indiana University School of Optometry, received funding for two studies examining the correlation between discomfort and the sensory response. Dr Situ will present the findings of her latest research on the topic at the British Contact Lens Association conference clinical and exhibition in June.

Find out more.