Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship

Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship is sponsored by Research to Prevent Blindness. Provides medical students a year off to pursue eye research projects in RPB-supported ophthalmology departments, suitable for cataract research.

Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship - Research to Prevent Blindness Dry eye is a chronic medical condition that develops when the eye's tear film does not lubricate and protect the eye's outer surface.

RPB Medical Student Fellow Works To Improve Glaucoma Detection RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship The Medical Student Eye Research Fellowships allow gifted students to take a year off from allopathic medical school and devote time to the pursuit of a research project within an RPB-supported department of ophthalmology.

Please note: the program is neither intended to become a vehicle to assure the candidate a residency, nor used simply to provide technical assistance to the mentor/lab. Mentors should carefully consider the research project and its objectives as well as the role of and outcomes for the medical student within the project, as they will be required to submit this information in the application.

The candidate, mentor, and the proposed training program are evaluated in the review process. Since outcomes are not announced until almost six months after submission, the applicant should be aware of the risk of rejection.

RPB/TGF (sponsored by Annette Grollman) Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship in Glaucoma Research RPB is partnering with The Glaucoma Foundation (TGF) to co-fund one (1) award focused on glaucoma research; the medical student applying for this award must be under the mentorship of a glaucoma physician. Only current RPB-grantee departments of ophthalmology may nominate candidates for the Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship.

The fellowship, which must take place prior to the third or fourth year of medical school, will be funded for one year with a $30,000 grant, a portion of which should be utilized to help finance the recipient’s eye research activities. Up to an additional $8,000 will be provided for students who must relocate at least one hour away from their medical school location to another school for the fellowship.

(Distribution of these additional funds is at the discretion of RPB.) MD/PhD students are not eligible to apply. Applicants must be nominated by their Ophthalmology Department Chair.

Please note: applications received without a prior nomination form will not be accepted. Candidates can access the nomination and application forms below. Download Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship Application Frequently Asked Questions Am I eligible for a grant?

Each RPB grant has different eligibility criteria, which is detailed on the relevant grant webpage. If you have questions about the eligibility details, please reach out to us; we’re happy to help. Do I need to be at an RPB-supported department to get an individual research award?

While a few of our RPB individual awards (RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship, RPB Career Development Award, and the RPB Physician-Scientist Award) are restricted to departments that have an RPB Unrestricted or Challenge grant, the majority of our awards are open to researchers at any academic medical center in the U.S. The reason that the three awards mentioned above are restricted to RPB-supported departments is that our Departmental Grantees undergo an extremely rigorous peer-review process.

The environment and leadership at these departments have met our stringent criteria and are appropriate venues for the research being conducted by these early- and mid-career researchers, giving us assurance that they will receive outstanding support and mentorship. If you are not sure if your department has a Departmental Grant, visit our current grantees here . Do you fund outside the U.S.?

No, all of our grants are awarded to researchers or departments of ophthalmology at U.S.-based academic medical centers. The RPB International Researcher Collaborators Award supports collaboration between U.S. and outside-the-U.S. researchers; however, the award is made to the U.S. academic medical center, which can then disperse the funds as needed to support the project collaboration.

I received an email about a grant requirement (Year-End Report, Financial Report, Progress Report, etc.). Who do I contact? For Financial Reports and Progress Reports, please contact Director of Grants Management MariaClaudia Lora-Montana ( mlora@rpbusa.

org ). For Year-End Reports (photos, research summaries and bibliographies), please contact Jo Casella ( jcasella@rpbusa. org ).

For more information about all RPB grant requirements, visit our helpful RPB Reports page . I’m a grantee and I published or presented (or plan to publish or present) a paper or poster. Who should I contact?

We love to help promote our grantees’ work! Please reach out to Director of External Affairs Diana Friedman ( dfriedman@rpbusa. org or 646-892-9565 ) to share your good news.

MariaClaudia Lora-Montano Director of Grants Management