Shameful research funding gap highlighted by ophthalmologists

Twelve ophthalmology leaders have signed an open letter calling on the government to develop a national plan for sight loss to ensure vital eye research receives the funding it desperately requires.

The letter, published in The Guardian last week, homed in on the fact that just 1% of national research funding was currently invested in eye research, despite statistics that showed 20% of people in the UK would experience serious sight loss or blindness in their lifetime.

The prevalence of sight loss is also on the rise, said the authors of the letter, with the number of people in Europe with the leading cause of blindness, age-related macular degeneration, projected to hit 10 million by 2050.