We champion the courageous and the curious. UK DRI researchers think differently, challenge one another and take risks in order to reap rewards. The Institute’s creative culture, collaborative ethos and leading edge resources help attract and keep the best talent.

Not only are our scientists world leaders in dementia research with unwavering ambition, but importantly include those working in other scientific areas who are new to the neurodegeneration field and want to step beyond boundaries. We use expertise from one field to fertilise another. Innovation comes from places where clinicians and researchers can team up with engineers, where training in new technologies and models is paramount and where academic freedom is given. Our Values

1. Courageous We embrace the unconventional, think outside the box and are brave enough to take risks to reap rewards.

2. Welcoming We share the best ideas, skills and tools. We progress careers. Our doors are open: we build connections with researchers globally and learn from people affected by dementia.

3. Energetic We work at pace, using the best science to catalyse discoveries.

4. Perceptive We are forward-thinkers and adapt quickly to opportunities that take us further, faster.

5. Determined We challenge ourselves and each other to work at the forefront of discovery and we strive daily for world-leading quality in our science.

There’s a vast gap in our knowledge of how the healthy brain functions and what can lead to its degeneration. We know progress to understand this process has been slow. The UK DRI is tackling this by focusing on the biological mechanisms underpinning dementia and by embracing new technologies and models.

Our research spans the biochemical, cellular, systems and clinical phases. We are taking many different approaches; from biomarkers to genetics, from vasculature to the microbiome and from inflammation to sleep. By having all this and more within one institute, we can benefit from integrating knowledge and ideas.

Research at the institute covers all diseases that can give rise to dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, Huntington’s disease and beyond. We will identify commonalities and unique features across the different disorders. Ultimately this means the right treatment will be given to the right person at the right time. We believe in catching dementia early, some 20-30 years before symptoms, and tackling it with a combination of therapies.

We’re not here to fill scientific publication libraries, but rather to have an impact on all those affected by dementia. We will move quickly to exploit emerging discoveries: taking new findings in the lab and getting them ready to enter the drug discovery pipeline.

We understand the importance of equipping our researchers to identify the potential of their findings to be translated into new treatments and approaches. We promote an entrepreneurial spirit in our researchers at every level, and equip them to take steps to develop, test and commercialise their discoveries.

Coordinated by the UK DRI Innovation and Business team at a national level, we build productive partnerships with industry to help validate targets and devise proof-of-principle preclinical studies.

We partner with researchers beyond the institute, the public, funders and people affected by dementia. We work across disciplines, locations, organisations and international borders. By sharing our knowledge, our plans and our resources, we can accelerate progress and learn from others.

We contribute to the public dialogue on neurodegenerative diseases and we are committed to learning from people with dementia and their carers through our Lived Experience Group.

We connect to the rich UK dementia research landscape, building on existing infrastructure and investments, and developing strategic collaborations with the wider scientific community in the UK and beyond. We’re always looking to partner with the academic, commercial and funding sectors. Find out more about the partnerships we've already established.