Dementia Frontiers Fund launched with researchers invited to apply for start-up awards
The Dementia Frontiers Fund has been launched by Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) and Gates Ventures, in collaboration with the Robertson Foundation and Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, with support from the Q Charitable Trust.
Described as, “A bold new multi-million-pound global initiative designed to address the most complex and urgent questions holding back progress in dementia research,” the Dementia Frontiers Fund is aiming to address 3 questions:
- Can we predict when dementia symptoms will start and how quickly they’ll progress?
- Why do some people live to an old age without ever developing dementia symptoms despite having known risk factors for dementia?
- How do different brain changes involved in dementia interact and which matter most?
To answer these questions, the Fund will bring together world-leading specialists both from within and beyond dementia research including scientists, engineers and clinicians.
The ARUK Lived Experience Panel has helped to shape the priorities of this Fund and Katie Foster, one of the members of this Panel, says:
“This fund could potentially produce some very good results giving people some genuine hope at last. Whereas, at the moment when people start to experience dementia in their own family, they feel abandoned and lost. And here’s something that might ultimately produce some real breakthroughs for us all.”
Niranjan Bose, Managing Director of Gates Ventures, says:
“At Gates Ventures we believe that the world’s most urgent health challenges demand bold and collaborative solutions. Now is the time to make the difference – by backing ambitious science today, we can change the outlook for millions of people tomorrow.”
Research teams worldwide are invited to apply for start-up awards to support collaborations and innovative ideas which address the programme’s research questions. The deadline for Expressions of Interest is 7 January 2026.
Find out more here: https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/about-our-research/dementia-frontiers-fund/