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- Fight for Sight is a nonprofit organization in the United States which funds medical research in vision and ophthalmology. It was formed in 1946 as the National Council to Combat Blindness (NCCB), the first non-profit organization in the United States to fund vision research; 2011 marked its 65th anniversary. Based in New York City, Fight for Sight provides funding and acknowledgment to promising scientists early in their eye research careers, before they are eligible for government support from the National Institutes of Health. Grants are made in three main categories: Post-Doctoral Fellowships to those with a Ph.D., M.D., O.D., Dr.PH, or D.V.M.; Grants-in-Aid to junior professors at research universities, and Summer Student Fellowships to medical students, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Led by its Scientific Review Committee selection process, the organization provides funding for eye and vision diseases and conditions. Fight for Sight has provided support directly or indirectly to major advances in ophthalmology and vision research, including donor cornea preservation, ophthalmic lasers, glaucoma therapies, genetic research, and the Intraocular Lens (IOL). Early on, Fight for Sight helped create national awareness and funds for vision research outside of its own fundraising when organization founder Mildred Weisenfeld coordinated testimony on eye research to Congress in 1949, leading to the creation of the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, and in December 1968 the establishment of the National Eye Institute (NEI) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although a modest foundation not exceeding $5 million in annual endowment, Fight for Sight had given out more than $20 million in grants to over 3,000 eye researchers by 2009. Fight for Sight celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2011. Organizational partnerships with Fight for Sight include The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration, Streilein Foundation for Ocular Immunology, the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society, and WomensEyeHealth.org. Fight for Sight in the U.S. is unaffiliated with the younger organizations with the same name in the UK or in Ireland. (en)
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