CENTRE HOSPITALIER NATIONAL D'OPHTALMOLOGIE DES QUINZE-VINGTS

Their core work

The Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital is France's leading specialist eye hospital, located in Paris. It contributes clinical expertise and patient access to European research consortia focused on retinal diseases, advanced eye imaging, and ocular drug development. The hospital serves as a clinical validation site for new diagnostic tools, imaging technologies, and therapeutic approaches for conditions like age-related macular degeneration, inherited retinal diseases, and dry eye disease. Its role in H2020 projects centers on providing real-world clinical environments where experimental ophthalmology techniques are tested on patients.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Early H2020 involvement (2017-2018) focused on clinical validation of diagnostic endpoints for age-related macular degeneration and multi-modal retinal imaging — essentially measuring disease progression more accurately. From 2018 onward, the hospital expanded into drug development training (dry eye disease) and, most recently, into imaging for gene and cell therapies (OPTORETINA, 2021). The trajectory shows a clear shift from passive disease measurement toward supporting active therapeutic interventions, particularly advanced therapies like optogenetics.

Moving toward becoming a clinical imaging hub for evaluating advanced retinal therapies (gene, cell, optogenetic), positioning them at the intersection of diagnostics and treatment validation.

How they like to work

Quinze-Vingts participates almost exclusively as a third party (3 of 4 projects), meaning they provide specialized clinical services or patient cohorts to larger consortia rather than managing project work packages directly. With 38 unique partners across 12 countries, they connect into broad European networks but do not drive consortium formation. This is typical of a specialist hospital — they are recruited for what only they can provide (clinical ophthalmology infrastructure and patient access), not for project management capacity.

Connected to 38 distinct partners across 12 countries, indicating solid European reach for a clinical institution. Their network likely spans university hospitals, imaging technology developers, and pharmaceutical research groups active in ophthalmology.

What sets them apart

As France's national ophthalmology hospital, Quinze-Vingts offers something few partners can: a large, specialized patient population and dedicated clinical infrastructure for eye disease research. Their combination of advanced retinal imaging capabilities (adaptive optics, OCT, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy) with direct patient access makes them a uniquely valuable clinical validation site. For any consortium developing ophthalmic diagnostics, imaging tools, or therapies, this hospital provides the real-world testing ground that turns research into clinical evidence.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OPTORETINA
  Most recent and forward-looking project (2021-2026), combining advanced optical imaging with gene and cell therapy evaluation — represents the hospital's future direction.
• MACUSTAR
  Long-running project (2017-2024) focused on the major public health challenge of AMD, developing validated clinical endpoints that could become industry standards.
• IT-DED3
  Their only role as a full partner (not third party), and an MSCA training network — shows commitment to building the next generation of ocular drug development researchers.