UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced new funding programmes totalling £8 million for the development of technologies to support people with dementia.
One is for £6 million for four new networks to boost the development and use of technologies to support people with dementia in their homes. The other is for £2 million from Innovate UK to support work on a digital tools for assessing the condition.
The money for the networks is being made available by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), in partnership with the charity Alzheimer’s Society.
The teams will explore how technologies can link up with existing health and social care services, and bring together expertise from academia, healthcare, charities and people with lived experience of dementia.
Details of networks
One is led by the University of Sheffield and will work on developing tools to address progressive changes in abilities such as memory, speech and sensory processing. It will focus on four key themes: indoor and outdoor spaces; arts, sports and culture; in-person and online communication; and digital technology development and translation.
Heriot-Watt University will lead a network focused on how technology can enhance the social, mental and physical capacities of people living with dementia. This will include addressing how their needs change as the condition progresses.
Northumbria University will build a regional hub for supporting dementia pathways. This will include setting up local technology hubs to reach people in rural and remote areas, and testing new technologies to get helpful devices to people with dementia.
Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute will focus on developing sustainable, low burden technologies for independent living and to support families and carers. These will be developed with a view to integrating them into existing health and social care systems, with a focus on mobility, communication, activities of daily living, health monitoring and carer support.
Transforming lives
Minister of State for Health Karin Smyth said: “Backing these ground breaking technologies won’t just help people with dementia, it’ll transform their lives, giving people the freedom to stay in their own homes, around the people they love.
“Moving care out of hospitals and into communities isn’t just smart healthcare, it’s about giving people independence. Britain will be at the forefront of dementia innovation, backing cutting edge research and rolling out life changing technologies that deliver real results for patients and families.”
Work on the assessment tool is being led by Dementias Platform UK researchers from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. It will also be supported by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaboration as part of the Blood Biomarker Challenge.
Quick cognitive test
Professor Vanessa Raymont of Dementias Platform UK, who is heading the READ-OUT team, said: “This add-on initiative to the READ-OUT study is a tremendous opportunity to assess the benefit of using a quick digital cognitive test alongside the panel of blood biomarkers we are identifying for Alzheimer’s and other diseases that can cause dementia.
“This is especially exciting given READ-OUT is keen to recruit people via Dementias Platform UK’s nationwide network that have other health problems and from ethnic groups that we haven’t been able to involve in research before. This approach will allow us to understand if such a combination of tests could be helpful and cost effective to roll out across NHS memory clinics and beyond.”
Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “Dementia is one of the biggest challenges to health and social care of our time. This £8 million funding will support researchers across the UK to take on that challenge, harnessing technology to improve the quality of life for those living with the disease.”
