British Eye Research Foundation

Fight for Sight, the British Eye Research Foundation, drives a mission to save sight and transform lives through pioneering eye research, social change initiatives, awareness campaigns, and advocacy for those with visual impairment. Core values of boldness, tenacity, information-sharing, and optimism underpin a strategic, evidence-led philosophy prioritizing long-term breakthroughs, interdisciplinary collaboration, and filling research gaps overlooked by commercial or government funders. They believe transformative change arises from investing in scientific talent, informing public understanding, influencing policy, and translating discoveries into accessible patient benefits via capacity-building and partnership with researchers, clinicians, and community groups.

They fund eye research across understanding diseases like inherited retinal disorders, glaucoma, and choroideremia; preventing sight loss onset through early interventions; enhancing diagnostics with innovative tools; and advancing treatments including gene therapies and novel techniques. Supported activities encompass project grants for translational research, clinical fellowships and PhD studentships nurturing early-career ophthalmologists, travel grants for knowledge exchange, social change projects improving quality of life via accessibility enhancements and community resilience programs, and awareness efforts addressing wellbeing, loneliness, and isolation among people with blindness or visual impairment. Beneficiaries include individuals facing all sight-threatening conditions, those at risk of eye diseases, families navigating vision loss impacts, and future research leaders, with emphasis on real-world applications like public health equity, preventative strategies, and holistic support reducing sight loss burdens.

Exclusions target activities misaligned with research or relief of sight loss needs, such as non-vision-related interventions or commercially viable projects. Distinctive priorities favor early-stage investigators, translational pipelines bridging lab-to-clinic, evidence-based public health outcomes, and community-led advocacy for visually impaired people, including isolated individuals and families in underserved areas. They uniquely champion boldness in high-risk research, policy influence for systemic eye health equity, and measurable improvements in quality of life for blindness-affected communities through optimistic, tenacious grantmaking.