Researchers at UCL will receive funding of over £1.7 million to set up and lead a new national Dementia Network Plus that aims to reduce dementia risk and improve lives.
The Dementia Network Plus will be one of only four in the country. It will aim to reduce dementia risk and improve people’s experience of living with dementia by supporting new projects and engaging with communities, with hubs in Wales, Scotland and England.
Dementia describes symptoms that affect memory, problem-solving, language and behaviour. Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common type of dementia. There are around 900,000 people in the UK living with dementia, affecting mostly individuals aged 65 and over.
Strategic investment by leading stakeholders
The Dementia Network Plus initiative is a strategic investment by the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC), the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Alzheimer’s Society.
The new network, which UCL will co-lead alongside the University of Exeter, is called “Sustainable Prevention, Innovation and INvolvement NETwork (SPIINNET). It will combine research power from 14 universities with specialist organisations and bring together individuals living with dementia, carers and family members, researchers, and people working for charities, health and social care services and industries.
SPINNET aims to unite existing networks and umbrella organisations, to enable researchers to deliver a programme that will use and make connections between the experience, knowledge and resources of people within the network.
Activities will include workshops where people can meet to design research projects together, training events, funding innovative ideas, meetings to raise awareness about dementia and prevention, and annual conferences to share learning.
Network co-lead Dr Georgina Charlesworth (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said: “I’m delighted to be co-leading the SPIINNET Dementia Network Plus. I hope that our work over the next four years will make a meaningful contribution to brain health, especially for those in at-risk or under-represented communities. We look forward to our work with partners across academia, industry, health and social care and the voluntary and charitable sectors.”
Professor Chris Fox of the University of Exeter, who is co-leading the network, said: “We now have high-quality research which indicates that we could prevent up to 40% of dementia by taking meaningful action from midlife. This funding will enable our new Dementia Network Plus to action the latest research both to prevent dementia and to work with people who have the condition to help them access early support and live the best lives possible.”
Associate Director of Research and Innovation at Alzheimer’s Society, Richard Oakley, said: “It is amazing to see such collaborative spirit driving research that tackles the biggest challenges for people affected by dementia.
“These Network Plus teams bring together academic, professional, and lived experience experts, to share knowledge and experience. They’ll work to develop innovative solutions across a range of important topics from care and diagnosis to inequalities within the workplace.
“We’re excited to see how these communities build and deliver much-needed solutions to people affected by dementia”.
