Disease Model Award

The Disease Model Award sits under Foundation Fighting Blindness, a US 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 1971 in Columbia, Maryland. Its mission is to drive research toward preventions, treatments, and cures for blinding diseases, and it directs roughly 80 percent of its annual budget to research and public health education. This award backs innovative non-rodent disease models, including in silico, in vitro, and in vivo work, for inherited retinal disease and dry age-related macular degeneration. Awards run from USD 300,000 to USD 1 million over three to five years, and the program excludes proposals centered on therapeutic development. Eligible applicants hold a doctorate and a faculty or equivalent appointment at a nonprofit, public, or private institution, including international nonprofit institutions. Applicants move through a two-step process: letter of intent first, then full application by invitation. The strongest fit is a team building a model that clarifies disease biology or improves the translational path for inherited retinal disease or dry AMD, rather than a project that starts from a candidate therapy.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.