The funding is part of a European collaboration which is investing nearly £16 million into health and social care research for degenerative diseases

More than £340,000 funding for international trial to support people with dementia

More than £340,000 of UK funding will support the University of Exeter’s role in a new trial that aims to test a new way of supporting people who live with dementia to cope with life’s challenges.

The UK arm of the SHAPE trial is led by the University of Exeter and the London School of Economics and Political Science. The project will take place across England, Norway and Australia, and aims to promote confidence among people with dementia, enabling and empowering them to continue participating in daily life and in society.

SHAPE stands for Self-management and HeAlth Promotion in Early-stage dementia with e-learning for carers. It will recruit people with mild dementia and their carers to take part in a programme that enables them to develop ways of coping with and managing life with dementia, including health promotion and e-learning support for their families.

Professor Linda Clare, of the University of Exeter, who is part of the research team, said: “For many people, a diagnosis of dementia can have a significant impact on confidence. It can really dent their ability to feel able to cope with the challenges of everyday life. We’re investigating how we can best support and empower people to live independently and as well as possible in dementia.”

The funding is part of a European collaboration which is investing nearly £16 million into health and social care research for degenerative diseases.

Funders including Alzheimer’s Society have united with 15 countries across Europe, Australia and Canada to support international research collaborations into diseases of the brain, including those that cause dementia. The latest Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease (JPND) funding awards represent a €17.5 million (approx. £15.75 million) investment over the next three years.

The JPND programme harnesses the collective expertise of researchers around the world to speed up progress towards new treatments and address shared challenges in health and social care. Alzheimer’s Society, along with Department of Health and Social Care England, Health and Care Research Wales and Health and Social Care Northern Ireland, has committed £2.15 million to the programme from the UK.

Dr James Pickett, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Society, who led the UK funding of the initiative, said: “One person develops dementia every three seconds across the world. Dementia is a global problem, and we need global collaboration to defeat it.

“Our funding supports research in the UK, but we know the reach of our work is far wider. Sharing findings internationally and setting up collaborations around the world makes research funding go further, and allows researchers to be a part of cutting-edge dementia research.”

To find out more about dementia research at Exeter, follow #ExeterDementia on Twitter or visit www.exeter.ac.uk/dementia

Date: 30 November 2018