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Press release

We’ve awarded eight eye health innovation grants

3 Feb 2014
|
7 mins

Standard Chartered’s Seeing is Believing, a collaboration between the international bank and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), has awarded eight innovation grants totalling USD1 million to a series of institutions, including  NGOs, an NHS Trust, universities, and a private company in a bid to bring high quality eye care to low-middle income countries.

In May 2013, Seeing is Believing called on innovators from across the world to bid for funding to develop new ideas with the potential for significant impact on the way eye health is delivered in low-middle income countries. After receiving over 300 proposals from institutions from more than 50 countries, eight grants have been awarded:

Richard Meddings, Chairman of Seeing is Believing, said “When we announced that we were giving grants to find new and innovative solutions for eye health in low-middle income countries these initiatives are exactly what we wanted. All the ideas have the potential to significantly impact the way eye health is treated and supported. If they prove to be successful, they can be expanded to other hospitals and communities, in Africa, Asia and beyond.”

Peter Ackland, Head of IAPB, said “We have a series of great ideas to bring new solutions to some of the barriers standing in the way of eliminating avoidable blindness for good. The projects seek to tackle some of the biggest challenges in eye health.  How to bring treatment to the millions of people in rural areas?  How to address some of the key human resource challenges in Africa?  How to combat rising problems like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy? Giving innovators the freedom to test their ideas could help us find the next breakthrough in eye health innovation.”

Two kinds of innovation grants were made available: a USD50k grant to back the development of innovations at initial pilot stage; and a USD200k grant to support innovations that have undergone some initial testing and are looking to prepare themselves for scale up.  The grants announced today represent the first wave of grants being offered. With USD2 million worth of funding still left to allocate, the next wave of funds will be made available over the next five years. 

*Peek is an adapted smartphone that carries out comprehensive eye examinations in even the remotest of settings.The Peek team is led by Dr Andrew Bastawrous and Stewart Jordan from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in partnership with Dr Mario Giardini at the University of Strathclyde, and Dr Iain Livingstone at the Glasgow Centre for Ophthalmic Research.

For further information please contact:

Neema Patel
Media Relations Manager
Tel: +44(0) 20 7886 6239
Email: Neema.Patel@sc.com

Jeanette McKenna
Head of Seeing is Believing
Tel: +44(0) 20 7885 7510
Email: Jeanette.McKenna@sc.com

About the institutions receiving the grants:

About Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing is a global initiative to tackle avoidable blindness, and is a collaboration between Standard Chartered (a leading international banking group) and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and its membership of eye health organisations.

For more than a decade Seeing is Believing has been supporting projects to tackle avoidable blindness and visual impairment.  To date, Seeing is Believing has raised over USD60 million, taking it more than halfway towards its target of USD100 million by 2020. Funds raised through Seeing is Believing represent the single largest cash contribution from the private sector to the development of eye health programmes through IAPB.  As part of the Seeing is Believing programme, Standard Chartered pledges to match all donations until the target of USD100 million is reached. 

Standard Chartered

We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 52 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.

Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

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