Overall – Project Summary The broad goal of this proposal is to provide core support services for 25 NEI R01 funded investigators and other vision scientists at the University of Washington to enhance the quality and quantity of their research, to facilitate collaborations between investigators with different backgrounds and skills, to recruit new investigators to vision research, to help young investigators establish their labs and to allow established investigators to explore new directions. The 25 NEI R01 funded investigators together hold 32 NEI R01 grants. Two additional investigators, each with a long history of NEI R01 funding, have pending NEI R01 competing renewals. Collectively, the University of Washington vision scientists represent a broad variety of vision research expertise, ranging from molecules to behavior with the shared goals of elucidating basic mechanisms of the visual system and its disorders, and developing potential treatments and preventions for vision loss. To help these investigators achieve their common goals we have organized facilities, services, and shared instrumentation into three modules: (1) Microscopy and Histology (2) Molecular and Cellular Biology (3) Functional Analysis of the Visual System and In Vivo Ocular Imaging These modules provide resources commonly used by multiple laboratories that are essential to the success of on-going projects as well as to enable new collaborations. The University of Washington is committed to the support of Vision Science, having recently built two new state-of-the-art research buildings, SLU3.1 and SLU3.2, that house vision research. The University established the 25,000 square foot (sq. ft.) Vision Science Center in SLU3.1 in 2013, and the 5,000 sq. ft. Karalis Johnson Retina Research Center in SLU3.2 in 2019. Since 2013, the University has provided more than $3,000,000 in funds for the purchase of equipment for the Vision Science Center including for the Vision Research Core, and for the Karalis Johnson Retina Center. Since the last competing renewal, the University provided competitive start-up packages in the recruitment of three junior vision research faculty across three departments. In this proposal, we request support for the Vision Research Core to help maintain shared instrumentation through service contracts, to provide personnel support for module scientists who assist and train investigators and their staff in the use of the equipment, to provide select services and specialized expertise to avoid duplication of equipment.