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 OpAL - an Initial Training Network combining physics, optics and biology
OPAL is an Initial Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under the Marie Curie Actions. 
Combining the expertise of five University-based European laboratories, two industrial partners, and a high-ranking international advisory board, this training network will provide a platform to train young natural scientists at the interface of physics, optics and biology. Despite extensive research on the optics of the eye and the neuronal processing of the optical image that is projected on the retina, a number of basic questions are surprisingly unclear.
Training activities will include complementary skills courses, lab exchanges, external schools and network meetings. The proposed research projects will elucidate the limits of visual performance, using state of the art technology. They will have direct implications for optical correction strategies (spectacles, refractive surgery, etc.) and for the understanding how different mono- and polychromatic aberrations limit vision and sensitivity in low light environments. In addition, the research will improve the understanding of the cues that drive accommodation and emmetropization, the mechanisms by which neural processing in the eye can "sharpen" degraded, aberrated or defocused retinal images, and how visual performance is affected by diurnal factors.
Objectives
Despite extensive research on the optics of the eye and neuronal processing of the optical image that is projected on the retina, the following questions, related to our every-day visual experience, remain particularly exciting:
the neural "image sharpening" mechanisms in the eye, their algorithms and time courses
how the eye deals with the prominent effects of chromatic aberrations, whether they are useful or disturbing
how defocus is detected and how it guides accommodation and emmetropization
how spatial vision is limited by the optics at low luminances
how spatial visual performance varies over the day, given that there are diurnal variations in eye length and intraocular pressure
how scattering of light in the healthy eye limits contrast vision and glare
Solving these questions will not only lead to optimized optical corrections but also to a deeper understanding of visual functions.
Within the frame of 6 clusters, which are directly linked to the questions raised above, several Work Packages will be jointly performed by the network partners.