Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to prioritise sight-loss conditions, including age-related macular degeneration, within (a) UK Research and Innovation's and (b) the Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s future biomedical research programmes.

The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funds research into vision loss, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), through a range of schemes. This research spans discovery science and fundamental mechanistic understanding, through to new approaches for diagnosis and intervention. For example, MRC has committed over £4 million to Kings College University for a clinical trial to establish safety and efficacy of photoreceptor transplantation in retinal degeneration and AMD patients as a potential treatment of the condition.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has maximum autonomy over its research and project choice, and allocation of funding to research projects and different sectors will be decided by those with relevant technical expertise. ARIA has made nearly £530 million in funding available across its first 10 programmes, which includes biomedical research.