Standard Chartered has awarded eight innovation grants totalling $1 million, in a bid to bring high quality eye care to low-middle income countries.

In a philanthropic move, Standard Chartered’s Seeing is Believing project, a collaboration between the global bank and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, has awarded eight innovation grants totalling $1 million to a series of institutions in a bid to bring high quality eye care to low-middle income countries.

The funding follows a call for innovators from across the world to develop new ideas that could significantly impact eye health in low-middle income countries. As an international banking group, Standard Chartered is known for its strong roots across Africa and Asia, as such, it is not surprising that the grants focus on eye projects in these regions.

“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,” said Peter Ackland, head of IAPB when commenting on the possible impact of the grants.

Projects spanning Asia & Africa

Seeing is Believing received over 300 proposals and awarded eight grants to the following projects:

CBM UK received funding for an African glaucoma laser trial, which will test the long-term clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a new, pain-free laser treatment for glaucoma.

Ellex Medical is attempting to halve the cost of cutting-edge lasers for eye treatments, by piloting the development of a low-cost, affordable pattern scanning laser for use throughout the developing world, in order to improve patient access to laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy.

The Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, received a grant for an online training model that will help staff to accurately identify diabetic retinopathy, initially in Indonesia, Botswana and Bangladesh.

Additionally, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is developing and piloting the use of an online portal to deliver free planning and management training to remote-based, mid-level health workers in Botswana, Ghana and Kenya. The school also received funding for the testing of new approaches to tackling glaucoma, which is considered the second largest cause of blindness in Africa

Another key grant went to Operation Eyesight Universal, which will test whether school screening can be improved by applying the use of an adapted smartphone called Portable Eye Examination Kit. The pilot will initially focus on schools in Kenya, but has potential to be scaled more widely in Africa and beyond, a statement said.

The Royal Society for the Blind received funding for a pilot project that hopes to improve employment rates for blind and visually impaired people in South East Asia by loaning specialist equipment to employers, such as Braille devices.  

Lastly, Wake Forest University Health Sciences will use its grant to improve treatment for trichiasis – a painful and blinding condition affecting trachoma sufferers. The project will test whether specially constructed life-like models can be used to improve surgical success rates for trichiasis, which to date have been poor. 

More funding lies ahead

Standard Chartered said that two kinds of innovation grants were made available, including a $50.000 grant to back the development of innovations at initial pilot stage; and a $200.000 grant to support innovations that have undergone some initial testing and are looking to prepare themselves for scale up.

To this end, the announced grants represent the first wave of grants being offered, with $2 million worth of funding still left to allocate over the next five years.