NAEVR/AEVR News
NAEVR Hosts ARVO in Urging FY2022 NIH/NEI Funding Increases
NAEVR’s advocacy activities for fiscal year 2022 National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Eye Institute (NEI) funding were amplified by a February 19 Advocacy Day engaging participants from the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s (ARVO) Annual Meeting Planning Committee, Science Communications Fellows, and Advocacy and Outreach Committee leadership. Held virtually, ARVO’s domestic and international advocates spoke with 50 Congressional offices, including several with funding jurisdiction over NIH/NEI, urging NIH funding of at least $46.1 billion and NEI funding of at least $900 million. Participants also urged support for NIH grantee research relief, citing the implications of COVID-19 pandemic clinical and lab slowdowns/shutdowns on their research and career prospects.
NAEVR spent the next week following up with offices, as the ARVO advocates requested that their Congressional delegation submit a Programmatic Request for fiscal year 2022 NEI funding at $900 million. NAEVR also followed up with leaders and membership of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittees of the House and Senate urging support for an inflation-plus-growth increase for the NEI.
Read more about the ARVO Advocacy Day and NAEVR’s activities
AEVR Holds Virtual March 11 World Glaucoma Week Congressional Briefing
AEVR’s virtual World Glaucoma Week 2021 Congressional Briefing features clinician-scientist educators Mona Kaleem, MD and Elyse McGlumphy, MD (both from the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine), speaking about glaucoma incidence and treatment, as well as their research efforts to provide better patient outcomes. They are joined by Glaucoma Research Foundation patient advocate Amanda Eddy who speaks about glaucoma’s quality of life challenges, as she has had it all her life.
Learn more about the event and the briefing here