Open Science Research Initiative
Project VEET was born out of a growing realization that researchers do not have the tools and funding needed to understand the root causes of myopia.
Following the recommendations of the NASEM’s September 2024 Consensus Study Report, Myopia: Causes, Prevention, and Treatment, Project VEET is providing the following:
- Sensors researchers can use to accurately monitor and comprehensively quantify the visual diet of preschool and school-age children (recommendation 5-3)
- Funding to support longitudinal studies of environmental risk factors for myopia that incorporate technologies for capturing data on working distance, temporal properties of near activities, and spectral characteristics of indoor and outdoor activities (recommendation 5-2)
- An open science model to create a comprehensive dataset of children’s (ages 3-16) changing visual diet (recommendation 5-1)
Funding: $1.5 million
Meta Reality Labs Research is committing $1.5 million to fund three independent research studies of quantified longitudinal visual experience and subsequent myopia outcomes.
Devices for data collection
We are providing the Visual Environment Evaluation Tool (VEET) at no cost to support these studies. The VEET has been designed in collaboration with our research partners as the ideal data collection device for visual experience data.
Federated, public-science data model
The VEET supports an open science model in which researchers not only publish their work, but also their data and the metadata artifacts necessary to interpret them, according to FAIR Data Principles, This allows data collected across studies to cumulatively address the myopia research problem at scale.
Standards and tooling for datasets
We are supporting open-source initiatives to create standards and tooling for the collection, storage, processing, and analysis of light-exposure data. These tools will support the analysis of data from the VEET as well as other light-measuring devices and dosimeters.
2025 Grant Program Interest
In October 2024, we will be sharing more details about how to apply for the 2025 Grant Program through our research foundation partner.
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