Harnessing academia, government, and industry.

One of the goals of the recent workshop, “An Eye on Glaucoma: New Opportunities for Treatment,” was to highlight areas of glaucoma research that, with appropriate funding, are ripe for major advancement for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Another goal was the exploration of collaborative partnership and the process for facilitating translation of these areas, not just for glaucoma but for all diseases affecting visual function. In this article, I address the second of the two goals. Since the National Eye Institute (NEI) was established in 1968, its mission has been to “conduct and support research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and requirements of the blind” in all areas of vision research. As part of the federal government, the NEI has distinct guidelines and rules that govern how it can foster vision science along the continuum from basic research, to clinical application, to acceptance and adoption by the medical community as the standard of care. Vision research is a collaborative process shown to be successful through engaged scientific discussion, investigator-driven hypotheses, and responsible program management and support. How does the vision research community best interact with the NEI to foster successful vision research? Most members of the community are familiar with the more traditional mechanisms of interaction (i.e., grants and contracts), but the topic “Harnessing Academia, Government, and Industry” gives us the opportunity to discuss other, perhaps less well-known partnership mechanisms. The purpose of this article is to explore the NEI toolbox and the various support mechanisms available for fostering research in eye disease, through partnerships between NEI, academia, and industry.