First participants join clinical study to fast-track dementia research in the UK

kellis
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:08:22 +0200

On 7 April, the Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) announced that more than 800 people have already taken part in the Dementia Trials Accelerator.Led by the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) and HDR UK, the Dementia Trials Accelerator aims to address one of the biggest barriers to progress in dementia research: the chronic under-recruitment to clinical trials. In some cases, it can take up to three years to recruit enough participants to run an 18-month dementia trial, while the average cancer trial takes 2.3 years from start to completion, including the recruitment phase. The Dementia Trials Accelerator is designed to transform how clinical trials are delivered in the UK by introducing digitally enabled, large-scale methodologies in community settings. The programme focuses on four key objectives:Increasing trial recruitment: developing a biomarker minimum toolbox for screening.Accelerating low-cost, digitally enabled large-scale trials (scaling up: 100’s to 1,000’s participants), capitalising on existing UK cohorts and community-based infrastructure.Enabling collaborative research and trials via a secure UK-wide data platform: multi-dimensional FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and trustworthy data environments.Prioritising needs of industry innovators, patients, and the public through stakeholder design and dialogue.As part of the initial rollout, over 15,500 participants (aged 65–75) from the REACT study, which is one of the UK’s largest population cohorts led by Imperial College London, have been invited to attend the first assessment clinics. Within the first few weeks, more than 800 individuals had already taken part in the programme.By early 2027, the Dementia Trials Accelerator aims to recruit over 10,000 individuals willing to participate in future dementia research. At present, participation is limited to invited individuals already enrolled in the REACT study. https://www.ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-events/first-participants-join-initiative-boost-dementia-clinical-trial-participation