MPhil Project: Surgical Correction and Ongoing Refractive Evolution (SCORE)

Does laser refractive surgery influence subsequent myopia progression in young adults?

The Centre for Eye Research Ireland (CERI) at TU Dublin invites applications for a full-time, two-year MPhil research scholarship within SCORE: Surgical Correction and Ongoing Refractive Evolution. The project is funded under the TU Dublin ARISE scholarship programme and delivered in partnership with Wellington Eye Clinic, Dublin.

Myopia is increasing worldwide, and a meaningful proportion of young adults continue to progress after childhood. There are currently no established evidence-based interventions for adult myopia progression. Optical myopia control treatments for children are thought to work partly by altering the peripheral retinal image and the eye’s higher-order aberrations. Laser refractive surgery (LASIK and PRK) permanently reshapes the cornea and produces similar optical changes. Whether this influences subsequent myopia progression has received limited investigation.

SCORE will test this hypothesis. The MPhil will focus on a retrospective comparative cohort study that analyses post-operative follow-up records of young adults treated with LASIK or PRK and compares their refractive change with carefully matched non-surgical myopes drawn from an existing Irish optometric electronic medical record dataset of over one million records. The student will identify patient and surgical factors associated with progression, including age, baseline refraction, ablation characteristics and induced higher-order aberrations, and will estimate the clinical significance of any differences observed.

The successful candidate will contribute to all core aspects of SCORE, including the ethics and data governance process, specification of the research dataset, data extraction and anonymisation within the clinic, data quality assurance, cleaning and cohort matching, statistical modelling, and dissemination.

At the start of Year 2, the student will complete a 2–3-month placement at Wellington Eye Clinic. They will receive training in the assessment, planning and follow-up of refractive surgery patients, including ocular biometry, corneal topography, wavefront aberrometry, treatment planning and post-operative care, as well as clinical data governance, outcome benchmarking and clinical audit.

The student will be supervised by Dr Michael Moore (Lead supervisor), Prof James Loughman, Dr Síofra Harrington and Prof Ian Flitcroft, and will join CERI’s established myopia and refractive error research group. The precise research questions will be refined with the successful candidate and supervisory team within the overall objectives of SCORE.

www.tudublin.ie/research-innovation/research/discover-our-research/research-centres/centre-for-eye-research-ireland/

Essential requirements

Applicants must:

• Hold a minimum second-class honour, grade 1 (2.1), degree in optometry or a closely related discipline (e.g. orthoptics, vision science, biomedical or health sciences, statistics or data science).

• Demonstrate strong analytical and quantitative skills and a willingness to develop advanced data analysis and programming skills in R.

• Demonstrate strong communication, organisational and scientific writing skills.

• Have a minimum IELTS (Academic Version) English Proficiency of 6.5 overall (or equivalent) with nothing less than 6 in each component if English is not the first language.

• Be willing to undertake a 2–3-month placement at the Wellington Eye Clinic and, while handling patient records at the clinic, work under the clinic’s direction and comply with its clinical governance, confidentiality and data protection requirements.

• Be able to work independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team of researchers, ophthalmologists, optometrists and enterprise partners.

• Have a strong interest in myopia, refractive error, refractive surgery and health data science.

Desirable

• A degree in optometry and registration with CORU as an optometrist (or eligibility for registration).

• Experience with R or another statistical programming language, statistical modelling, or large clinical or electronic health record datasets.

• Research experience, including scientific writing or presentation.

Funding Agency: Technological University R&I Supporting Enterprise scheme Student Stipend per annum € 25,000 Materials & Travel Budget per annum € 3,000 Fees covered by the funding per annum €5,500 Duration of Funding 24 months Application Closing Date: 23rd October 2026

If you are interested in submitting an application for this project, please complete an Expression of Interest. forms.office.com/e/0hCcrv2Gkp