Our campaign wins

The Government recommits to doubling dementia research funding to £160m a year by 2024, with an additional £95m ringfenced for a dementia taskforce - similar to the one that delivered COVID-19 vaccines - after sustained campaigning from Alzheimer’s Research UK and its supporters.

Following the publication of our analysis, The Impact of Dementia on Women - which highlighted how women are disproportionately affected by dementia across their lives and what needs to change – we were delighted to see the Government’s commitment to improving the number of women participating in dementia research, and growing awareness of dementia risk factors that may help reduce the number of women living with dementia in the future.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, we urged Government to convene a Dementia Medicines Taskforce to fast-track advances in research into a new wave of treatments for people living with dementia.

More than 1,000 of you invited your MP to our virtual parliamentary event, where we brought together representatives from Government, the pharmaceutical industry, scientists, and people affected by dementia, to consider how the prioritisation and urgent action taken to COVID-19 vaccines could be applied to dementia.

The government pledged to invest £95 million for the Life Sciences Vision and £2.3 billion for improving diagnostic capacity. The government confirms that part of this funding will go towards dementia

Your actions meant over 100 cross-party MPs signed our letter to the Chancellor calling for him to honour the Dementia Moonshot in the autumn Spending Review.

We welcomed over 120 MPs to our parliamentary event highlighting the importance of dementia research.

More than 1,000 of you invited your MP to our parliamentary event putting the spotlight on dementia research. The emails you sent covered nearly 75% of all constituencies in the UK.

There is encouraging news as the government announces dementia research as part of Life Sciences Vision.

We met with MPs to discuss potential future treatments for dementia and the need to prepare the NHS to deliver them.

Our petition calling on the government to deliver the Dementia Moonshot secured more than 52,000 signatures. One of them belonging to Olive Munro, who sent a personal letter to the Prime Minister urging him to deliver on the government’s promise.

Your efforts also helped secure MPs’ support for the Dementia Moonshot. More than 100 cross-party MPs signed our pledge wall to support more funding for dementia research.

We briefed MPs to speak in a Parliamentary debate on dementia.  MPs questioned the Minister about the need to take action to help dementia research recover from the impact of the pandemic, improve dementia diagnosis, and get more people involved in research.

We marked Dementia Action Week with the launch of three policy reports relating to delivering new treatments, dementia diagnosis and clinical trials.

Are we ready to deliver disease modifying treatments? Which looked at how we can make the UK a world leader in clinical trials.

The Right to Know: Accurate and Earlier Diagnosis of Dementia. This looked at how we can improve dementia diagnosis in the UK.

Translating Science into breakthroughs: the future of late-stage dementia clinical trials in the UK.

We submitted evidence to NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) to help ensure potential new treatments are assessed fairly to meet the needs of patients with dementia.

MPs pledged to look after their brain health by signing up to our Think Brain Health Wall.

You emailed MPs asking them to back our brain health report and to raise awareness of Brain Health amongst their own constituents.

We met with MPs as we launched our Think Brain Health campaign. As part of the campaign, we published our Brain Health: A new way to think about dementia risk reduction report with the aim to empower people to keep their brains healthy and reduce their risk of dementia.

We launch Delivering the Dementia Moonshot: A plan to find life-changing treatments. The report outlines six priority research areas that must receive investment if we are to find a life-changing treatment.

During the 2019 general election, Alzheimer’s Research UK calls on all political parties to increase dementia research funding to 1% of the total cost of dementia.

The Labour manifesto promises to improve access to future treatments for conditions like dementia, and the Conservative manifesto includes a pledge to double dementia research funding.

Over a dozen MPs come together to hold a Backbench Business Debate to discuss dementia and ways to improve the lives of people living with the condition. The 90 minute session raises several important issues, including Alzheimer’s Research UK’s call for £320m to be put towards research. Four MPs champion the need for additional dementia research funding with two calling for just 1% in the debate.

Thanks to our incredible supporters, we elevate the call for government to fund more research than ever before! Countdown’s Rachel Riley joins Alzheimer’s Research UK and people impacted by dementia to present our incredible 35,000-strong petition to 10 Downing Street. The petition calls for dementia research funding to increase to 1% of the total cost of dementia.

Dementia is included as a priority health area in the strategic plan for the NHS for the upcoming decade. It comes after Alzheimer’s Research UK brings together organisations from across the UK to publish an open letter to the Health Secretary. The letter asked leaders “to put dementia and the millions impacted by the condition at the heart of your priorities”.

Nearly 35,000 incredible supporters sign our petition asking the government to increase research spending to 1% of the overall cost of dementia. The number of signatures cause the government to acknowledge and respond to our call. The petition supports our action plan for government that outlines changes needed to improve the lives of people with dementia.

We launch our new action plan for government. The report outlines five areas to help improve the lives of people with dementia and bring about life-changing treatments. Our lead call to is to put 1% of the total cost of dementia towards research funding by 2025. Over 100 Campaigners write to their MPs – a huge success in raising awareness about how government can support dementia research.

Following a 2016 pilot study, dementia prevention messaging is included in NHS Health Check for people over 40. The new Health Check will include dementia risk reduction information for people in mid-life - an important window for addressing brain health.

Our Campaigners help drive support for an Early Day Motion during Dementia Action Week, recognising the impact of dementia and our mission to bring about the first life-changing treatment by 2025. A total of 34 MPs across six political parties sign the Early Day Motion, helping us understand who can champion our cause in parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May outlines a new early diagnosis of disease project within the Grand Challenge on Artificial Intelligence in the Industrial Strategy and mentions dementia as part of this work. This announcement aligns with work Alzheimer’s Research UK is doing to change the way we detect the diseases that cause dementia.

Alzheimer’s Research UK calls for help promoting dementia research during the snap general election and the number of people helping us campaign soars! Thanks to you, we now have more people calling for support in government than ever before.

In the midst of a snap general election, the Conservatives’ election manifesto includes a commitment to invest in dementia research. Alzheimer’s Research UK calls on other political parties to make similar commitments to ensure efforts to power breakthroughs in dementia research remain a priority in the next parliament.

Following a boost in research investment in 2010, the number of neurodegeneration researchers in the UK doubles between 2008/9 and 2014/15. This also results in a doubling of the number of research publications, increasing our understanding of the diseases that cause dementia.

In the wake of the disappointing halt of clinical trials into Alzheimer’s drug solanezumab, Alzheimer’s Research UK brings together leading international researchers, including those who worked on the drug, to discuss learnings from the trials. This was the first time that detailed data from the trial was presented to the scientific community, and the discussions are now being used to help shape future research efforts.

Alzheimer’s Research UK commits £50m to the UK Dementia Research Institute, which is led by a government investment of £150m. The initiative demonstrates a strong commitment to dementia research and is the largest joint effort in the UK supporting dementia research uniting Medical Research Council, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Following campaigns from Alzheimer’s Research UK, the new Accelerated Access Review names dementia as a ‘test case’ in evaluating new medicines made available on the NHS. The review considers how to speed up access to new drugs, medical technology and diagnostic tools.

Alzheimer’s Research UK joins with the UK Department of Health and major pharmaceutical companies to invest in a global fund to develop new treatment approaches. The Dementia Discovery Fund focuses on exploring new ideas in dementia research, as well as stimulating further global investment in research into the condition.

Following the publication of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Manifesto 2015-2020, which lays out steps needed to achieve the goal of bringing about a life-changing treatment by 2025, the coalition government sets out plans for its second Challenge on Dementia. This includes a commitment to investing £300m in dementia research over five years.

Alzheimer’s Research UK publishes “Women and Dementia: A marginalised majority”, a groundbreaking report that looks at how dementia impacts women. This insightful report stimulates conversation around the world and is referenced by organisations including the Global Alliance for Women’s Brain Health.

Following ambitions set at the G8 Dementia Summit, Alzheimer’s Research UK pledges to raise £100m for dementia research. Among the projects funded is a pioneering UK Stem Cell Research Centre to enable collaboration between researchers at University of Cambridge and University College London. Prime Minister David Cameron announces this campaign in his speech at a legacy event of the G8 Dementia Summit.