Vision for a Nation Foundation has contracted with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to conduct a major impact evaluation of Rwanda’s national eye care services. This first-of-its-kind study will focus on the primary eye care services that are now provided at every one of Rwanda’s 502 health centres as a result of the charity’s support. The research is being funded by UBS Optimus Foundation with results to be published in 2017 and 2018.

Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI) has started a new initiative, Research Capacity Building, to enhance research capacity in ophthalmic institutions of developing countries. To promote the initiative, AOI has compiled a directory of research and training resources offered by advanced institutions. Presently, the directory includes institutions represented by AOI members. This directory will be updated periodically with more information added in the future.

Six hundred KwaZulu-Natal textile factory workers will have an opportunity to have their vision examined at their workplaces, through a 12-month research study program funded by Lion’s Club International Foundation (LCIF).

The African Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO/AFRO) and the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) are pleased to announce the 2015 call for applications of the Joint AFRO/TDR Small Grants Scheme (SGS) for implementation research in infectious diseases of poverty.