For decades, dementia has been hidden away – a silent crisis affecting millions. For just as long, funding for research has lagged far behind other medical conditions. We are changing that.
As the world’s largest dedicated dementia research charity, we are here to ensure that the best ideas, backed up by the strongest science, have the greatest chance to succeed. We passionately believe in the power of research to change lives for good.
Thanks to your support, we are funding more pioneering research than ever before. With your support, we’re focusing our energies in four key areas of action to make this mission a reality.
The Alzheimer’s Research UK Research Network is a unique initiative which unites more than 1000 dementia researchers from across the UK to support and streamline dementia research.

From the South Coast to Scotland, we’re bringing together scientists from 39 different universities and research institutions across the UK into 15 virtual centres of scientific excellence. Through the Research Network we’re creating a community of researchers from difference disciplines and encouraging and enhancing research partnerships and resource-sharing that are helping us to make progress faster.
Researchers within our Network have unique access to funding for small grants to support travel, equipment and networking, as well as being eligible to apply for large Network Cooperation Grants which encourage researchers from different Network Centres to work together on large research projects.
We’re acutely aware of that we won’t defeat dementia in isolation and that we need to inspire and attract new scientists to work in dementia research. Through the Research Network, we’re supporting researchers at a grass-roots level as well as helping them forge collaborations to think more ambitiously than ever before.
As well as facilitating researchers in their vital work, each Network Centre holds an event for the public to update people in their area about the progress they are making. Find out about research events in your local area.
Visit our research projects page to find out more about the research taking place in your local Network Centre.
How we fund research
Alzheimer’s Research UK is dedicated to making life-changing breakthroughs in diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure. Through investing in research, we will help make these breakthroughs possible.
Our progress
Since we funded our first research project in 1998, our researchers have been making huge advances in understanding the diseases that cause dementia.
Research partnerships
We know that we can’t overcome dementia alone and we are forging partnerships at home and across the globe to bring about life-changing treatments for people with dementia as soon as possible.
Big initiatives
Funding research projects allows us to be agile and responsive to new developments in dementia research, but it is also important for us to see the bigger picture.