Eye charity Fight for Sight is dedicating £1.4m of funding for research into the prevention and treatment of eye diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and corneal dystrophy.
The grants will support universities across the UK from the University of Cambridge and Newcastle University to the University of Dundee and Queen's University Belfast.
Michèle Acton, chief executive of Fight for Sight, said: 'The grants programme is extremely competitive and sadly every year we receive many more applications than we are able to support. We have chosen to fund 10 projects, across a number of disease areas, which offer real hope to the many people affected by blindness and eye disease.'
One of the award recipients, Professor Alan Stitt of Queen's University Belfast, will investigate the role of the protein RAGE, in particular its link to damage caused in early diabetic retinopathy. Earlier this year the charity awarded six PhD studentships totalling £545,000 for research into disease including AMD, conjunctival scarring and childhood blindness.