Scholarships, awards and prizes

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists offers a range of scholarships, awards and prizes every year to undergraduates, researchers and clinicians. Interested? Find out more here.

Each year, the RCOphth offers a generous number of scholarships, travel awards and clinical/research fellowships in partnership with other organisations. These cover a wide variety of areas, from specialist research, to help with funding electives for undergraduates.

An award grant is a great way to enhance continued professional development and contribute to research, service development and audit for the benefit of eye care services in the UK.

Awards are added through out the year. Please watch out for announcements in EyeMail and on College social media platforms.  Direct any travel awards and scholarship enquiries to [email protected].

We ask all our reward recipients to submit a written report within three months of completing their fellowship/research, using this report format guidance. The report is circulated to the RCOphth Education Committee and the awarding body.

Please note: the Patrick Trevor-Roper Undergraduate Travel Award has come to an end. There is no replacement undergraduate travel award planned at this stage. If this changes, there will be an announcement via the usual channels: EyeMail, College social media platforms, and on this page.

Open Awards

Glaucoma UK and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists are please to announce that applications are now being accepted to the 2024 Glaucoma UK/RCOphth Research Award. The award(s) can be up to the value of £100,000.

This award is funded by Glaucoma UK. The application process is administered by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists.­ The closing date is Tuesday 7 May 2024, 9am. Interviews will take place in July 2024.

The Glaucoma UK RCOphth funding stream is accredited by NIHR.

  1. This is a postgraduate research award to facilitate research into glaucoma.
  1. Applicants may be trainees seeking support for a fellowship or senior researchers seeking a grant for a project.
  1. Applications are invited from departments and individuals based in the UK or Ireland, but the research studies may be carried out elsewhere.
  1. Glaucoma UK encourages patient-orientated research and research directly concerned with the improvement of the management of glaucoma.
  1. Multidisciplinary research teams are encouraged and should include a member/fellow of The Royal College of Ophthalmology, but co-applicants (and project lead) may include hospital/community-based optometrists and/or nurses undertaking glaucoma research in the UK and Ireland.
  1. The awards are normally awarded annually.
  1. Grants must be taken up within nine months, unless the grantee makes an application, with explanation, to the Chair of the Glaucoma UK Grants Committee for approval.
  1. The successful applicant will be required to submit a preliminary report on work carried out at six months and after each six months thereafter for the duration of the award and return a full report at the termination of the Fellowship. The progress of each project will be monitored by Glaucoma UK’s Head of Research. Continued staged financial payments are dependent on receipt and satisfactory review of each of these reports with the last 10% of payment given on receipt of the final report.

 

Please note that the application process is administered by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists. The conditions of grant will be an agreement between Glaucoma UK and the successful applicant.

Please email an electronic version of your completed application form and embedded CV to [email protected]

CVs sent as separate documents will be accepted as an alternative to completing the relevant section on the application form.

For queries about Glaucoma UK’s funding and priorities contact Joanna Hodgkinson, Head of Research, on [email protected], or 07719 519 021.

Closing date for applications: 7 May 2024.

Interviews will take place in July 2024.

 

Awards & Prizes Reports

Read the reports from previous successful applicants and hear what they achieved with their awards and prizes.

Read more