National Eye Institute (NEI)

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Mission Statement

The NEI Mission is to eliminate vision loss and improve quality of life through vision research.

Interest Areas

General Topics

The NEI Strategic Plan identifies seven areas of emphasis: 

  • From Genes to Disease Mechanisms:  Identify ocular disease genes to develop new strategies, models, and tools for elucidating genetic and environmental interactions at the cellular and systems level; accelerate mechanistic understanding and therapy development.
  • Biology and Neuroscience of Vision:  Investigate corneal nerves, photoreceptors and phototransduction, retinal circuitry, the optic nerve and oculomotor system, and central visual processing. 
  • Immune System and Eye Health:  Investigate the “immune-privileged” structure that leads to many chronic eye diseases including uveitis, dry eye, age-related macular degeneration, and optic neuritis.
  • Regenerative Medicine:  Accelerate translation of new therapies that fix or replace damaged or diseased tissues previously thought to be irreparable.
  • Data Science:  Optimize data management and data sharing while preserving safeguards and ethical protections and maintain leadership in informatics and artificial intelligence.
  • Individual Quality of Life:  Address the needs and perspectives of individuals, including those living with blindness or low vision, to advance their independence and improve quality of life.
  • Public Health:  Facilitate basic and clinical advances to improve vision, preserve sight, and provide access for all. 

Assistance Listing

Assistance listings are detailed public descriptions of federal programs used across government agencies that provide grants, loans, scholarships, insurance, and other types of assistance awards. They are maintained in the System for Award Management (SAM) and can be used to search for opportunities in Grants.gov.

View NEI Assistance Listing Numbers

Highlighted Topics

Title Lead ICO Participating ICOs Posted Date Expiration Date

Funding Opportunities and Notices

Search for NEI’s funding opportunities and notices

Additional Information by Funding Category

Administrative Supplements
In addition to our Administrative Supplements overview, consider the following NEI-specific information.
Administrative Supplement Interest Areas:
  • The award of an administrative supplement depends on several factors, including alignment with NEI’s priorities and documented needs.
  • NEI awards administrative supplements on a case-by-case basis.  
Administrative Supplement Due Dates:

NEI accepts and reviews applications on a continuous basis between October 1 and May 31 of each fiscal year.  Applications received after May 31 will be considered for funding in the next fiscal year. 

Administrative Supplement Contact:

NEI Extramural Research 

[email protected]

See Also

National Eye Institute (NEI)

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