The Prime Minister has announced plans to tackle what he is calling a 'national crisis' posed by dementia, including a doubling of research funding into dementia to £66 million per annum by 2015. As part of the funding being made available, the ESRC and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) will be working together to support an initiative with up to £13 million funding available for social science research on dementia.

Scope

The initiative will fund large grants which will be national or international focal points for social science research in Dementia which make a significant contribution to scientific, economic and social impact. The call will address the following areas (see the research agenda (PDF, 71Kb) for full details):

• Prevention, including public awareness and early presentation
• Public health of behaviour change, including the role of social interventions in slowing cognitive decline
• Delivery of interventions in hospitals care homes and carers, including the interface between professionals, lay people and patients

Documentation

All outline decisions have now been sent and the invite-only full proposal call is now closed. The following documentation is for information purposes only.

• Reviewer guidance notes (PDF, 179Kb)
  
• Call specification - full proposals (PDF, 190Kb)
• Guidance notes for applicants  - full proposals (PDF, 214Kb)
• Guidance for applicants on involving patients, families and carers (PDF, 151Kb)
• Examples of career development and capacity building (PDF, 64Kb)
• Guidance on interventions and NHS costs (PDF, 103Kb)
• Additional costs proforma: NHS support and treatment costs (Word, 143Kb)
• Presentations from 3 July meeting for potential applicants (PDF, 1.2Mb)
• Frequently asked questions (PDF, 144Kb)

Timetable

• Meeting for potential applicants - July 2012
• Launch / call open - 9 July 2012
• Closing date for outline call - 11 September 2012
• Announce decisions for outline call - mid December 2012
• Closing date for full call - 5 February 2013
• Inviting short-listed applicants for interviews - June 2013
• Interviews - 24 June 2013, to be held in London
• Announce final decisions - July 2013

Links

• Prime Minister's challenge on Dementia (Department of Health website)
• National Dementia Strategy (Department of Health website)
• Ministerial Advisory Group on Dementia (Department of Health website)
• Strategic Research Agenda for the Joint Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Disease (JPND website)
• Lifelong Health and Wellbeing: Strategy for Collaborative Ageing Research (MRC website)

Contact

For further information please email: dementia@esrc.ac.uk