Royal Blind awards close to £160,000 in research grants

Royal Blind has awarded close to £160,000 in funding to help prevent and treat conditions that lead to blindness.

The Scottish charity will invest funds in four project areas in 2017 – gene therapy, glaucoma, retinal surgery and retinoblastoma treatment.

Royal Blind has committed to its ophthalmology research funding scheme for another three years. The initiative was founded in 2014 in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons.

Each year, £170,000 is made available through a small grants scheme for projects up to £10,000 and a large grants scheme for grants between £10,000 and £60,000. Any money left over is carried forward to the following financial year.

Royal Blind chief executive, Mark O’Donnell, said: “We are delighted to be working with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh again to fund more world-class research. The personal and societal cost of sight loss is huge and we want to ensure that, as well as providing high-quality services in Scotland across the age ranges, we also support leading scientists in finding new ways to tackle and treat conditions.”