Our Research Mission Statement

What do we mean by Mission Statement?

This Research Mission Statement is based on the broader organisational strategy of Alzheimer’s Society and sets out a new direction of travel and some areas of focus, it is not an exhaustive list of all the things we will or will not do.  

This Research Mission Statement covers 2022-2027 but will be updated periodically with relevant updates. 

Supporting dementia researchers

Alzheimer’s Society wants to be known as the funder of choice for early career researchers in the UK and to be considered a leader in equality and inclusivity.

We want to recruit the brightest and best minds into dementia and support them to develop into world leading researchers.

We will do this by partnering to leverage funding into dementia research, inspiring a new generation of researchers to focus on dementia and supporting them to build long-term careers in dementia research.

Our approach will be to focus on the future potential of the researcher and the impact they could have on the field of dementia research. 

Moments of transition for people affected by dementia

Alzheimer’s Society is focusing as an organisation on the areas that can make the biggest difference to people affected by dementia.

Below are six transition points, which often lead to crisis, that people affected by dementia have told us have the biggest impact on them now. 

1. Getting a diagnosis 
2. Adjusting to living with dementia 
3. Needing greater support with care 
4. Hospitalisation 
5. Needing an alternative home 
6. End of life 

Alzheimer’s Society has funded research for over 30 years and has played a key role in some of the biggest breakthroughs leading to incredible impacts for people affected by dementia.

We know that research is knowledge, it leads to innovation and empowers people, and it can remove the fear of dementia.

Research will ensure that Alzheimer’s Society will continue to play a key role for people affected by dementia by either reducing the impact of or eliminating moments of crisis.

Research is hope for a better future, but also for a better today.

Our research programme will be underpinned by a few key principles outlined below.

• Only fund research of the highest quality 
• Increase the number of dementia researchers throughout the career pipeline 
• Alignment to the moments of transition  
• Ensure people affected by dementia are key in our decision making.

Our focus for dementia research

We want to shift our focus to more clinical, translation research, we are looking to play a key role in developing and implementing new breakthroughs.

We will continue to run response mode funding schemes, but we will also identify key barriers to our strategy and run specific funding calls asking the research community to address these challenges.

We want to see improvements in living with dementia now, that could be through a quicker more accurate diagnosis, through improvement in care and support or in the development of new treatments.

The four main ways we will bring these aims to life are:

1. Funding early career researchers 
2. Continuing to grow our response mode funding schemes 
3. Proactively developing targeted funding schemes 
4. Focusing on research participation - the recruitment of people with dementia onto clinical trials and supporting them until the trial completion.

Scoring research grant applications 

Alzheimer’s Society will only fund world-class research. All applications will be scored based on the quality of the application and/or interview, as determined by a panel of independent experts.

Applications that meet the quality threshold will then receive a strategy score based on the applications alignment to the four following areas: 

1. Development of Early Career Researchers 
2. Appropriate participation of people affected by dementia 
3. Potential impact for people affected by dementia  
4. Alignment with six transition points.

Alzheimer’s Society still welcomes research applications from all disciplines relevant to dementia, this strategy scoring will only be used to finalise the rank ordered list of funding recommendations.