Celebrating Distinguished Service to Ophthalmic Research 2025 Award Recipient
In this video, Professor Robyn Guymer discusses how early support from Australian Vision Research helped establish her career and advance long-term studies in age-related macular degeneration. She highlights the importance of foundational funding, ongoing collaboration, and Australia’s strong contribution to global eye research.
Video Transcript
Hello, my name is Robyn Guymer, and I’m Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research Australia. I’m also a retinal specialist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
How has Australian Vision Research supported you as a researcher?
When I think about the Australian Vision Research funding and how it’s impacted my career, I think back to 28 years ago, when I first started as a researcher having returned from a fellowship in London. The very first grant I received was only $10,000, but it helped me continue the work I’d started at Moorfields, looking at the use of laser treatment to slow down the progression of AMD.
I think about it now because I’m still doing that work. I still run studies trying to show that the use of an Australian-made laser — a nanosecond laser from Ellex (now Nova Eye) in South Australia — could potentially slow down or intervene in AMD. We still have no proven treatment for that condition, to try and slow down AMD. So for me, it’s interesting that the first amount of funding from Australian Vision Research is still important to me.
When I look back at all the other grants I’ve had, certainly early on, I’m still looking at those same areas. That fundamental early research funding enabled me to get my start — and I think that’s the most important role AVR plays: that initial funding to enable young researchers to make their start.
My trajectory has followed very nicely with small grants I received from Australian Vision Research over the years. And that is excellent, that the funding I was given was not ad hoc; or one-off, it was on-pitch. That early research is still relevant today, two or three decades later.
2025 Impact Report
Looking at the 2025 Impact Report on Australian Vision Research funding, it’s very clear that we have very highly regarded researchers who are able to publish in high-impact journals that are able to secure additional grants from competitive grant bodies like the NHMRC. The fact that AVR funds so much basic research is very important for the longevity of eye research in Australia. It means we are creative, we have initiative, we can think of new ideas, and that means the pipeline for more translational work will still come the down line.
I think it is highly informative (the report) showing us how well Australia does in eye research and how well we are regarded internationally.
How can Australian Vision Research strengthen collaboration?
It’s very important to work in groups and teams. Australia is lucky in that we have a small number of people doing eye research relative with elsewhere. It should be possible for us to work more collaboratively together trying to answer the big questions. Perhaps a role for Australian Vision Research could be to gather a bigger corpus of funding and put out a call for a particular scheme that we could be asked to work together to put out a proposal. If there was one pool of money that was ear-marked for collaborative eye research, and ask us to put in a proposal, that might be a good way of getting us to work together to address one major problem.
How does it feel to be recognised with your award?
The Australian Vision Research Award is a huge compliment to the work that not only myself but my team have been doing for almost three decades now. Often times in research it is a hard slog — you need resilience, you don’t get rewards very quickly. It takes a long time to make a real difference in terms of the disease you’re looking after.
So to be recognised by peers, especially when those peers also have tremendously fabulous research projects themselves, means a great deal to me and my team. I think knowing the calibre of research in Australia, and how highly it compares to the rest of the world, I know I’m in a field with worthy candidates — so it was wonderful and unexpected surprise to be given this award.
What advise do you have for fellow researchers?
Being a clinician–scientist is not easy, and not too many people choose it as a career. I think more important than brilliance are the qualities of resilience and perseverance, and the ability to work in a team. Just being very smart isn’t going to get you everywhere you need to go — whilst it could be handy — but it is gathering a team around you with the skills that you don’t have, and to be able to direct them, is essential.
But you need to be in it for the long haul. As I mentioned previously, you don’t receive rewards every day or even every year. You have to know what you’re trying to achieve, and be prepared to stick at it. Resilience and perseverance are good qualities to have if you are going to set out as a career clinician–scientist.
I’d like to thank the Australian Vision Research community for their support of the work we have been doing over the past three decades, and for the recognition that comes with the Australian Vision Research Award. I would certainly encourage people to learn more about the work AVR does — and of course, to feel welcome to donate to support the research we’re doing in Australia.
Thank you.