Project Grant R43OH012080

This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute's Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) provides $356,807 to Electric Indigo, LLC to develop indigo light-emitting eyewear for the treatment of myopia progression in children and adolescents. The project aims to (1) advance the technical merit of the eyewear by creating a new prototype for low-volume production and conducting safety evaluations, and (2) evaluate the feasibility by performing a pilot clinical study in young adults to assess...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program provides $305,000 to Elektrum Technologies, Inc. to develop an additive manufacturing process for producing low-cost, flexible, and transparent conductive electrodes. The goal is to create a more cost-effective alternative to indium tin oxide, which is a brittle material currently used in many optoelectronic applications. The Phase I project will focus on two key...

This $332,179 Project Grant awarded by the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 Vision Research) supports the development of nanobarrier contact lenses that can provide sustained delivery of the drug cysteamine to treat the ocular complications of cystinosis. The lenses are designed to replace the current 8-times daily eye drop regimen, improving patient compliance and reducing side effects from the preservatives and acidic pH in the eye drops. The project aims to demonstrate the lenses can...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Cooperative Agreement, under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, is focused on developing a high-efficiency, low-cost catadioptric waveguide and display optical engine for augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. The $1,249,221 award to Cogni Trax aims to solve a key limitation in current AR displays - the inability to show true black pixels, which reduces contrast...

The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $612,342 project grant to the Ovitz Corporation to develop AI-driven tools for automating the design of higher order aberration optics in contact lenses. The project, funded under the NEI's Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867), aims to reduce the design time for specialty contact lenses by up to 40 minutes per lens and potentially eliminate one fitting session for patients. The key objectives are to: 1) prepare a training dataset of 28,000 wavefront...

The federal Project Grant award R21EY036536 was provided by the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 Vision Research program) to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to conduct a pilot study on using amber light exposure to slow myopia progression and axial eye elongation in children. The $816,750 award will fund a 2-year study to determine the efficacy of having myopic children wear amber-tinted contact lenses for up to 4 hours per day. The study aims to test the hypothesis that...

This $1,000,000 Cooperative Agreement award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) will support the development of a gaze-independent, contactless autorefractor technology for use in a self-serve, autonomous vision exam kiosk. The project aims to improve access to vision care and eyeglasses for Americans by providing a rapid, convenient vision assessment solution that can be deployed in retail stores and public spaces. Key...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project Grant award, funded under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, is to develop a subtractive-waveguide-based display technology for augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. The $275,000 grant, awarded on March 1, 2024, aims to create a display solution that can achieve pixel-wise transparency control and hard-edge occlusion using a single CMOS display panel. This would...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.084 - NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program) provides $275,000 in funding to Enchroma Inc. to develop a novel contact lens that can assist individuals with color vision deficiency. The project aims to embed narrow-band hydrophobic dyes into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) contact lens material to spectrally modify light reaching the eye and improve color recognition for those with hereditary or acquired color...

This SBIR Phase I Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084), aims to develop a novel implantable intraocular lens that can shift the phase of visible light to mitigate vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration. The $304,998 award to Glaive Medical Optics Inc., with a period of performance from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, will fund the development of an energy-efficient,...