Ophthalmology Research in LMICs 2025

Call for Proposals – Ophthalmology Research in LMICs

Velux Stiftung is pleased to announce the 2025 Call for Proposals within its Ophthalmology Program, with a dedicated focus on addressing challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

A key priority of the programme is strengthening institutional research capacity in LMICs. Velux Stiftung seeks to support the development of research departments within universities and research institutions, enabling them to fund, manage, and conduct biomedical research in ophthalmology. We are convinced that building strong local research ecosystems is essential to advancing eye health in LMICs.

This year’s call will again prioritize institutional strengthening and offers support for two types of projects:

• Institutional Research Capacity Strengthening Projects

Projects that aim to sustainably build, develop, or enhance institutional structures supporting biomedical or clinical ophthalmology research in LMICs.

• Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Projects in Ophthalmology

Projects focused on developing and validating new methods for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of eye diseases—tailored to the specific needs and contexts of LMICs.

To be eligible, all proposals must contribute meaningfully to strengthening the research capacity of institutions based in LMICs. Projects with a higher share of institutional research capacity strengthening aspects will be prioritized in the selection.

Please find here the list of approved projects in the first four years of the program.

If you are unsure about the fit of your project idea to the scope of the call, we encourage you to send a short abstract to info@veluxstiftung.ch.

We warmly invite you to disseminate the call in your networks.

The call is also published on social media. Please share the news on LinkedIn or Bluesky.

The call for proposals at a glance, please refer to the full call for proposals before applying:

Thematic focus:

1) Institutional research capacity strengthening projects: projects aiming at sustainably building, developing, or reinforcing institutional structures enabling biomedical/clinical ophthalmology research in LMICs.

2) Interdisciplinary biomedical research projects in ophthalmology aiming to develop and validate new diagnostic, prevention, or treatment methods for eye diseases adapted to the local context and environment of LMICs. Such projects must also contribute to some extent to strengthen research capacities of the institutions in LMICs.

Duration of the projects: 1 to 4 years.

Scale of funding: from CHF 50’000 to CHF 100’000 per year, for one to four years, with at least 50% of the funding to be used in LMICs.

Partnerships: Consortia of research groups with at least one partner based in a LMIC are invited to apply. The involvement of a high-income country (HIC) partner in the consortium is welcome but not mandatory. Most of the research should take place in one or several LMICs.

To enhance the sustainability of the institutional research capacity strengthening, a member of the LMIC research institution’s executive / leadership team (member of senior management and decision-making body) should be included in the project team as PI or co-PIs

Deadline: 29 September 2025, 23:59 CEST

Final decision: March 2026

A budget of CHF 2 million is reserved for this call for proposals.

Please note that we do not fund projects where the main focus lies in health systems / services research, implementation research / intervention science, health economics or community development. Neither training, education, capacity building for eye care or research to improve this process.