# Global eye care campaign offers $250k seed funding for best ideas

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/04/06/global-eye-care-campaign-offers-250k-seed-funding-best-ideas/
- Published: 2016-04-06T12:30:09+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Global campaign ‘Clearly’ is designed to find and develop “revolutionary approaches
to eye care for the people who need it most”. It is offering $250,000 in seed funding
and mentoring to help develop the best ideas.**

The campaign is the work of James Chen, a Hong Kong-based philanthropist and investor
who is on a mission to address the problem of poor vision “that the world appears
to have forgotten about”. He says that there are 2.5 billion people around the world
suffering from poor vision and with no means of improving it.

The [Clearly](http://www.clearly.world) campaign brings together innovators, scientists,
technology firms and big business, with investors, governments and NGOs to solve
this problem “and help the world to see”.

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## Three-part campaign

The year-long campaign has three strands:

 * An ideas competition for entrepreneurs, which asks technologists, supply chain
   experts, data scientists and forward thinkers tocome up with innovative solutions.
   The prize offers **$250,000** of seed funding and mentoring to get the best ideas
   off the ground.
 * A series of ‘Clearly Labs’ challenges for individuals to help find the answers.
   Innovators will come together for one day events in India, China, Silicon Valley
   and elsewhere, meeting with health leaders and optometrists, applying their expertise
   and ideas to help find new thinking, new ideas and new solutions.
 * A global event with a small group of the world’s best and most creative brainpower
   in one place to develop the big idea

The campaign has attracted support from Agnes Binagwaho, Minister of Health, Rwanda;
Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of eyewear brand Warby Parker, and former
director of charity, VisionSpring; Brian Doolan, CEO of The Fred Hollows Foundation;
and Sir David Tang, entrepreneur and founder of Shanghai Tang; and others.

![James Chen](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2016/04/james-chen.jpg)

_James Chen_

Campaign founder James Chen said:

> “Good vision empowers and transforms lives on every level. In the digital era,
> the world has the ideas and the technology to crack this challenge and transform
> access to sight around the world. Through Clearly, I hope to inspire creative 
> minds and unlock innovative solutions to solve this global problem, accelerating
> a revolution in eye care and helping the world to see.”

Chen is the founder of Adlens, a global enterprise leading the development and sale
of adjustable focus eyewear, and the founder of Vision for a Nation Foundation, 
a UK charity that supports emerging nations to provide nationwide primary eye care
and affordable glasses to all their citizens.

 

_Main image: [hazel eye close-up](http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-53768827/stock-photo-super-macro-shot-of-hazel-eye.html)
by Evantravels on Shutterstock.com_

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