Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding was allocated by its Health Directorate to eye health research in each year since 2019-20.
The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO) supports open competitive grant and fellowship schemes for applied health research in Scotland across a wide remit. This remit is inclusive of consideration of applications for funding for research on eye health. Applications submitted to these schemes are assessed through independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by independent expert committees.
Funding awarded through these schemes in the years from 2019 - 2025 for research relating to eye health has included:
Competitive grant and fellowship schemes
Year funding committed | Total funding awarded (£) |
2021 | 73,000 |
2022 | 237,062 |
2024 | 699,466 |
2025 | 97,000 |
CSO also provides funding to support NHS Research Scotland (NRS) infrastructure, enabling NHS Boards to host and participate in clinical studies and trials funded by public, charitable, and industry sectors. This includes dedicated support for a NRS Ophthalmology Research Network, which facilitates the setup and delivery of Ophthalmology clinical studies across Scotland. Annual funding for this network is shown in the following table:
NRS Ophthalmology Research Network
Financial Year | CSO Funding (£) |
2019-20 | 14,404 |
2020-21 | 14,404 |
2021-22 | 14,821 |
2022-23 | 18,000 |
2023-24 | 19,000 |
2024-25 | 20,000 |
2025-26 | 21,000 |
In addition, CSO contributes financially to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in order that NIHR research programmes are open to applications from researchers in Scotland. These programmes also provide research funding opportunities for eye health research.