NHS fit for the future dementia challenge is sponsored by Medical Research Council (MRC) and UK Research and Innovation. This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

NHS fit for the future dementia challenge – UKRI Funding opportunity: NHS fit for the future dementia challenge UK Research and Innovation, Medical Research Council (MRC) 23 April 2026 9:00am UK time 4 June 2026 4:00pm UK time The Dementia Challenge is an invitation only opportunity, you must have completed the mandatory Expression of Interest to apply.

Submit an application if you have a clinical intervention or technological innovation that could: shorten the time it takes to diagnose dementia in the NHS enhance early detection of clinical change following diagnosis be deployed in the NHS from 2029 Healthcare professionals, businesses and researchers can take part.

Successful clinical interventions will receive a fully funded real-world evaluation to generate the evidence needed for wider adoption across the NHS. To be eligible, your business must be a UK based legal entity. Healthcare practitioners and researchers based at an eligible organisation in the UK can apply.

Check if your organisation is eligible . Please email the Health Team [email: healthmission@mrc. ukri.

org ] if your application is being supported by a part of your organisation which is based outside the UK. You can only apply for this opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful Expression of Interest. Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants.

We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: support for people with caring responsibilities alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

The R&D MAP Health Mission is seeking applications from researchers, healthcare practitioners and industry.

We are looking for clinical interventions and technological innovations that could support the delivery of the dementia challenge: The challenge aims to identify, develop, validate and implement innovations and clinical interventions for the NHS that have the potential to ensure that, by 2029, 92% of patients referred for dementia assessment receive a diagnosis within 18 weeks of referral.

We are looking for Interventions and Innovations that: shorten time to diagnosis enhance early detection of clinical change following diagnosis are capable of deployment from 2029 Clinical interventions must have been evaluated in at least a single-site pilot.

They must deliver at least one of the following: shortened time from referral to dementia diagnosis improved staging of disease state improved prognostic data to guide patient and carer support reduced resource requirement enhanced operational efficiency improved patient outcomes Technological Innovations Technological innovations must: be intended for dementia diagnosis or tracking of disease progression in people already living with a dementia diagnosis be medical devices or In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) and have or be near to regulatory clearance (UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) or CE (Conformité Européenne) mark.

For clarity, if not already cleared for sale in the UK, a technology must have a roadmap and delivery plan for regulatory clearance to be in place no later than the end of March 2029 have evidence of clinical safety and efficacy, through RCT data or clinically robust real-world evidence All interventions and innovations must: have been tested with user groups be scalable for routine use across the NHS include a clear roadmap for implementation in the NHS have support of a clinical champion to support real-world evaluation and, subject to milestone completion, rollout at scale and pace across the UK demonstrated understanding of the resources required to train and support adoption articulate the value proposition for stakeholders Evidence of efficiency gains or health economic benefit is desirable.

Expectations for commercial organisations Alongside the innovation or intervention commercial organisations should provide: This must be provided for the duration of the evaluation period (up to two years) at zero cost.

Benefits for successful clinical interventions and technological innovations Successful innovations or interventions will receive a fully funded real-world evaluation tailored to generate the evidence required for widescale adoption across the UK. It is estimated that a real-world evaluation would begin at the start of 2027 and could run for up to two years.

partnership with clinical research lead and clinical infrastructure collaborative protocol development evaluation monitoring, data collection and analysis support write-up and dissemination access to the evaluation data generated for analysis and modelling to drive product and service enhancement support for fast-track regulatory clearance in the UK guidance on commissioning, procurement and the development of a market access strategy for the NHS across the devolved nations publication and presentation of evaluation results as part of a national campaign to raise awareness for the dementia challenge Where two successful technologies or interventions have the potential to complement each other in clinical practice, the panel may recommend that they are evaluated together under a single real world evaluation protocol.

An example of this could be the use of a new approach to brain imaging and an AI-based automated image analysis tool. A project partner is a collaborating organisation in the UK, who will have an integral role in the proposed innovation or intervention. Please email the Health Team if your proposal is being supported by a project partner based outside the UK.

You may include project partners that will support your project through cash or in-kind contributions, such as: recruitment of people as research participants providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project Each project partner must provide a statement of support. Who cannot be included as a project partner Any individual included in your application core team cannot also be a project partner.

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation. If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist.

They cannot be a project partner. Supporting skills and talent We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment . Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks. See further guidance and information about TR&I , including where applicants can find additional support.

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service, so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead organisation can submit an application to UKRI. If the lead organisation is a business or an NHS organisation, check it is available in the Funding Service. You are encouraged to check this early as there may be additional steps for the organisation to be set up before you can apply.

You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following an expression of interest. The start application link will be provided via email: Confirm you are the project lead. Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.

We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any award that might be offered to you. Answer questions directly in the text boxes.

You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.

Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office, if applicable. If applicable send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.

If applicable your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI. If your organisation is a business, or if it does not have a research office, you may submit your application directly and disregard steps four to six. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must: provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit) insert each new image on a new line use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words.

The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include: sentences or paragraphs of text excessive quantities of images A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see: how applicants use the Funding Service how research offices use the Funding Service how reviewers use the Funding Service References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. Hyperlinks can be used in reference information.

When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that: references are easily identifiable by the assessors references are formatted as appropriate to your research persistent identifiers are used where possible General use of hyperlinks Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information.

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment . UKRI must receive your application by 4 June 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines. Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

MRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications. We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice .

UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with Alzheimer’s Society so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how the Alzheimer’s Society uses personal information, visit How we use personal information .

UKRI will also need to share submitted application data with other bodies in the health space for the purposes of matching the technological innovations and clinical interventions with the organisations that will complete the real-world evaluation. If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email healthmission@mrc. ukri.

org Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include: individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave) additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection the application is an invited resubmission For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice .

UKRI will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity. Details of where the outcomes will be published will be available in due course. Please input N/A in the box below.

The summary will be included in the Intended use and clinical need section. List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following: project co-lead (UK) (PcL) professional enabling staff Only list one individual as project lead. If you include more than one project lead your application will fail at the checking stage.

For the purposes of this opportunity the definition of Professional enabling staff will include: relevant employees within the lead organisation (for example finance, accounting, marketing research and development and technical or operational) Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications .

Provide a lay case for support for your application What the assessors are looking for in your response The lay case for support will be reviewed by people with lived experience of dementia. It is the only part of the application that they will assess therefore it is important that it covers all of the relevant information. Do not reference other sections of the application with the lay case for support.

The lay case for support: Should be clearly written in language that people without a scientific background can understand. Should be written in plain, non-technical language and avoid using unexplained abbreviations or acronyms. Use the glossary for unavoidable scientific or technical terminology.

Does not require references. Should be structured around the mandatory headings listed below. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. Mandatory headings for lay case for support (with suggested content): The consensus among people with lived experience is that it would be useful to see a glossary included in all applications that use technical and scientific terms as well as acronyms. Your introduction, should provide us with the following information: What is your intervention or innovation?

Provide a clear concise description . What clinical condition(s) will it address? Specify the dementia related condition or stages it targets.

Confirm your methodology by describing: how does it work. Explain the core mechanism, process, or technology behind your intervention when and where will it be used and by who. Describe the intended setting (e.g., primary care, memory clinic, community) and the user group (e.g., clinicians, carers, patients) how could it benefit the lives of people affected by dementia today or in the future.

Outline the anticipated impact on diagnosis, care, quality of life, or disease progression Confirm your proposed projects intended impact and the evidence of the intended impact by describing: any involvement of people affected by dementia in the preparation of your project how and why is it a better clinical intervention or technology than the existing interventions or technology and practice? how it will it change the care pathway?

and outlining any specialist advice received, such as input from statisticians, clinicians, methodologists, or regulatory experts The lay case for support can contain an overwhelming amount of information for lay reviewers. We highly recommend that you summarise the key points and main takeaways of your project and what it aims to accomplish.

Below are the questions provided to lay reviewers to guide their evaluation of each application: Thinking about the lay summary and how easy did you find it to understand? Was there anything you didn’t understand? Using your own experience of dementia.

What are your thoughts about the potential impact this intervention or innovation could have on people affected by dementia? What are your thoughts and comments on the benefits outlined and how do they compare with existing practices? What are your thoughts and comments about the applicant’s plan to involve people affected by dementia within this project.

Is there anything else they should consider? (For example, do you feel they have sufficient plans to involve a diverse group of people? Is it clear how people will be involved?)

Do you have any other comments about this application? (optional) By outlining these areas in the lay proposal, applicants can ensure their submission is clear and comprehensive.

You may wish to involve patients, patient representatives, members of the public or health professionals in the development of your summary Intended use and clinical need Summarise the clinical need your innovation or intervention is addressing and how it will address that need.

What the assessors are looking for in your response what is the impact of the unmet need on patients and their families, health care professionals, the NHS and wider society? to what extent would adoption of your innovation or intervention ameliorate these impacts and how?

the specific clinical needs the innovation is addressing (strong applications will demonstrate a good understanding of the clinical need for example diagnostic bottlenecks, drivers of wait times) how your clinical intervention or innovation solves this problem and how the product would be adopted by the NHS the intended patient population that the intervention/innovation is designed to benefit the intended user of the intervention or innovation (healthcare professional/patient/carer) and where it is intended to be used or deployed (memory assessment service, outpatient clinic, community diagnostic centre, secondary care setting) the benefits of your solution.

These benefits should be quantified in terms of patient, operational or financial outcomes what makes your solution unique and superior to other technologies or approaches to address the problem, and can this be evidenced? the critical elements of the Intellectual property rights (IPR) involved in your solution, how is this IPR being used by the business (for example, wholly owned or licensed) and how is it protected today?

Do you have full rights to use the innovation? References may be included within this section. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. Clinical Implementation and Adoption Explain how your solution will be implemented within NHS dementia pathways, including impact on time to diagnosis and improved prognosis post diagnosis? What the assessors are looking for in your response how will the intervention or innovation be positioned within the care pathway?

Will it act as a replacement for the current standard care or is it an adjunct? how will the intervention or innovation fit with existing products, job roles, practices and cultures? will it require a change to the current dementia pathway, if so, how will this be implemented?

What implementation challenges might be encountered? how will your clinical intervention/innovation be adopted into the NHS? (map out the roadmap to implementation and adoption, route(s) to market at scale across the UK, identifying risks and mitigations) what is your patient adoption strategy and what progress has been made to date?

References may be included within this section. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Clinical and health economic evidence Provide details of the clinical and health economic evidence supporting your innovation or intervention?

What the assessors are looking for in your response your current clinical evidence for the clinical intervention or technology (the clinical studies that have been run and their results) your evidence generation plan to address any clinical evidence gaps with your clinical intervention or innovation the current level of health economic evidence (any studies that have been undertaken and their results) your evidence generation plan to address any health economic evidence gaps with your clinical intervention or innovation You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. References may be included within this section. Describe how you will present or expect to present your product or service to the NHS?

What the assessors are looking for in your response How will the customer buy it?

Indicate if it: will be packaged with other products, services or processes will be reliant on the NHS having made other purchases in the past (for example, of specific equipment) will be bought direct from you or through resellers or intermediaries will be bought as a one-off purchase or has recurring sales The assessors are also looking for you to describe: your current or expected pricing approach (for example, value-based, costs plus margin, etc.), your price point and how it relates to other offerings on the market.

If you have data to support your approach and price point (for example, market research) your business model and value proposition (using, for example, the Strategyzer Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas or similar tools You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service. References may be included within this section.

Regulatory Status (for technology innovations) Describe the regulatory status of your product or service?

What the assessors are looking for in your response details of the regulatory approval status in the UK and elsewhere if UK approval has not yet been granted, an outline of the progress made to date, a plan and timelines for approval identifying risks and mitigations and how this will be resourced, to achieve regulatory clearance no later than 31 March 2029 You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. References may be included within this section. Applicant and team capability to deliver Why are you the right individual or team to support the real-world evaluation of the Intervention or Innovation?

What the assessors are looking for in your response Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have: • the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to support the real-world evaluation • the right balance of skills and expertise • the appropriate leadership and management skills You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your response (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV. References may be included within this section.

What resources could you provide for the real-world evaluation? What the assessors are looking for in your response The Dementia Challenge will fund the development and delivery of a real-world evaluation of clinical interventions or technological innovations. This will include tailored protocol development, support with site selection, patient recruitment and study management, and results analysis, write up and publication.

The assessors are looking for you to describe your contribution to the project and, where possible, its estimated value. For commercial entities, this might include, for example, physical products or software products, training resources, in-field support for the duration of the project and staff seconded to the project to support its management and successful delivery.

For health care professionals or academic researchers, this might include, for example, team members seconded to the project and access to any required background data.

For both interventions and innovations, teams that already have in place an established research network that can undertake the real-world evaluation would be able to use this resource, subject to it being able to deliver results that are generalisable (that is, can be deployed universally to ensure equality of access) across the NHS in each of the devolved administrations. References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service. User and Stakeholder Engagement How have you engaged stakeholders?

What the assessors are looking for in your response Provide a description of the level of engagement for this clinical intervention or innovation with the following stakeholders: innovation adoption agencies (AAC, HIN) research funding grants (NIHR, UKRI, HCRW, CSO) NHS Trusts and Health Boards You should also provide a summary of the level of engagement with the public, patients and people living with dementia and their carers and the plans that you have for future engagement (include the purpose of this engagement).

References may be included within this section. You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI) What are the ethical and RRI considerations, implications and issues relating to the proposed Clinical intervention or Technological Innovation? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

What the assessors are looking for in your response Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated: the relevant ethical and RRI considerations, including both the research or topic area itself and the design and delivery of the Intervention/Innovation the wider implications of the proposed work, and how you will maximise the positive societal, environmental, and economic benefits arising from the project, whilst minimising unintended negative impacts, such as research misuse or accidental harm how you will manage these considerations throughout the lifecycle of the project You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. Please refer to the UKRI position statement on funding ethical research and Responsible innovation for more information around our expectations on ethical and responsible research and innovation. In addition, If appropriate consider the MRC guidance on ethics and approvals .

Public Sector Funding Awards Outline any public funding received to date in support the development of the innovation or intervention, for example, UKRI grants awarded, funding from NIHR, or similar that are active or under review. What the assessors are looking for in your response Provide the following information: status (ongoing or complete) References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service. Your organisation’s support Provide details of support from your organisation.

What the assessors are looking for in your response Provide a statement of support from your organisation detailing how they will support you, as the applicant, and your proposed activities. This should include details of any resource that will be provided to support the activity and any additional support that might add value to the work. Assessors will be looking for a strong statement of support from your organisation.

This information should have been approved for submission by an appropriate authority. You must also include the following details: a significant person’s name, their position and office or department, or all office address or web link Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposal. This may include direct contributions for example cash, donated equipment and resources, or staff seconded to the project, or indirect and in-kind contributions for example use of project partner’s equipment, datasets, or facilities. Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK.

Please email the Health team [email: healthmission@mrc. ukri. org ] if your proposal is being supported by a project partner which is based outside the UK.

A project partner is not anyone in your core team or anyone from your organisation or any of the other organisations represented by core team members.

Add the following project partner details: the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable) the project partner contact name and email address the type of contribution (direct or indirect) and its monetary value If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

If you are adding a project partner to this section, you must ensure they provide you with a letter or email of support and you upload it to ‘Project partners: letters or emails of support’. For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partners section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only. What the assessors are looking for in your response If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

What supporting statements we are looking for We are looking for you to provide letters or emails of support from all your identified project partners. What we are not looking for We do not want any other letters (or emails) of support, from people who are not your identified project partners, such as those simply expressing general support for your project. If these are