The Ophthalmic Research Center (ORC) affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU) was launched in 1997 as the first Iranian eye research center. ORC is a division of the Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science linked to the Department of Ophthalmology and three SBMU-affiliated medical centers. The main focus of ORC was designing and conducting clinical research, especially randomized controlled trials. Multiple clinical research projects were approved by the ORC Research Committee and their results were published in high-impact journals and cited in textbooks. After a few years, numerous basic, translational, and epidemiological research projects were approved by the committee, and the infrastructure was promoted. In addition, several national and international collaborations were established. ORC has been a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Eye Care and Prevention of Blindness (WHOCC) since 2011 and has the main role in situation analysis and planning for eye care in Iran. In addition, this center has multiple regional and international collaborations in the field of ophthalmic epidemiology and public eye care in line with WHOCC's terms of reference. Numerous activities (research, research-based products, promotional activities, and …….) have been performed as joint projects with the Ophthalmic Epidemiology Research Center and the Ocular Tissue Engineering Research Center (two other divisions of the Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science).