A bright future for contact lens research

Advances in dry eye assessment, grading clinical signs and multifocal fitting are all topics at the cutting edge of current contact lens research. It was no coincidence that young researchers of the future addressed just these topics in their quest to be named CooperVision FORCE European Student of the Year.

FORCE (Future Ocular Research Creativity Event) is an annual competition pitching the very best European optometry students against one another. Students are invited to undertake a six to eight-week research project on a contact lens-related topic of their choice and to present their findings.

Around 200 students from across Europe took part this year and 70 went forward to their national finals. Teams from nine countries reached the second FORCE European final, held in Barcelona in April, where a panel of today’s leading European researchers and clinicians judged their projects.