While medical progress has led to significant advances in treating certain disorders such as myopia and cataracts, other eye diseases still pose major challenges. As the population ages, an accompanying increase in macular degeneration pathologies is becoming a serious public health problem. However, ophthalmology research is not sufficiently funded by public agencies. All the more reason to act now.

Eye diseases: the importance of research

In 1980, thanks to a generous donation from Berthe Fouassier, Fondation de France initiated an ambitious program that supports research on eye diseases. All of the projects are led by young doctors and researchers in the field of ophthalmology or neuro-ophthalmology. Currently, the program supports nearly 200 projects for a total of around 8.3 million euros.

The “Eye Disease Research” program addresses a major public health issue. Today some 270,000 people in France are blind. In addition, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual impairment for people over 50*.

That is why we are concentrating our activities on two main areas:

• supporting research in the field of ophthalmology and in particular, the biology, physiology, and therapeutic treatment of eye diseases;
• ostering research in vision science, especially the study of the relationship between neurological mechanisms and ocular function.

*Source:Fédération des aveugles de France