Doctoral Training Centre for Integrated Care

Lead researcher: Professor Nathan Davies & Professor Claudia Cooper, Queen Mary University of London

Collaborating institutions: Queen Mary University of London, University College London, University of Plymouth, Leeds Beckett University, London School of Economics

Awarded: £3,120,978.67

Start date: January 2025

End date: December 2032 

We have both worked for many years directly with people living with dementia and understand the impact a diagnosis can have on a person and everyone around them. As a leading cause of death in the UK and with no cure as yet, it is vital we support people right from getting a diagnosis through to end of life- our work and our DTC aims to do just this.

- Professor Claudia Cooper & Professor Nathan Davies 

About the Centre’s research focus

Every person’s lived experience of dementia is different with different needs and requiring their own personalised care. There is a need for systems to deliver personalised, joined up care. However, we know that for far too many people, this does not happen. The current care systems are not properly set up to deliver appropriate care, and the care people receive is often fragmented and disjointed – reducing their quality of life and independence.

The Alzheimer’s Society Doctoral Training Centre for Integrated Care will focus on integrating primary, secondary and social care work, to deliver care that is easier to navigate and much more supportive. The researchers will create new ways to bridge gaps between medical treatments, social care support, and community resources. The aim of the Centre’s research is to create better care services and knowledge which will make a difference to everyone with dementia from diagnosis through to the end of life.

The Centre’s research will focus on vital themes, including:  

• Independence and choice; which will ensure that every person with dementia will have a voice in their care;  
• Managing complexity of the disease; to find ways to provide joined-up and coordinated care for people with multiple health and care needs;  
• Focusing on under-served communities; to ensure that everyone has equal access to high quality care;  
• End of life care; to ensure that the quality of care is improved at this critical time, and that people’s needs are respected and met with compassion.

The Centre will train 29 PhD students who will focus their research on developing integrated dementia care. Students will be guided by, and will learn from, supervisors working across five leading universities, as well as NHS and social care professionals, policy makers, and people with lived experience of dementia, to develop methods and projects that will aim to understand the needs of people with dementia, which will improve their care and support.

The Centre aims to help these 29 students to become the next generation of outstanding dementia researchers, who will gather the evidence that the policymakers, researchers, and services need to improve the dementia care system in the UK.

This is such a fantastic opportunity with so much scope to not only create amazing work that changes the lives of so many people. But it also gives us the opportunity to create, nurture and develop the next generation of dementia researchers and the field of dementia research itself. We have so many unique opportunities for our PhD students and our supervisors through our DTC, including policy workshops, public engagement sessions teaching how to communicate our research to the general public and placements with our excellent partners at Nuffield Trust, Marie Curie and many others.

- Professor Nathan Davies & Professor Claudia Cooper