DEM-COMM programme
Building Capacity in Dementia Research
DEM-COMM is a capacity-building scheme for post-doctoral researchers working in applied dementia research. The scheme launched on October 1st, 2022, with funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Alzheimer’s Society, and will run until March 31st, 2026.
The aim of DEM-COMM is to prepare a future cohort of researchers for the role of Chief Investigator in applied dementia research. This is an important and specialised role that carries with it the expectation that the lives of people living with (or at risk of) dementia will improve because of research.
The scheme supports the development of 60 early to mid-career researchers working in one of the 15 Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) across England.
Latest Blog from Ruth - DEM-COMM in Geneva
DEM-COMM is led by Professor Ruth Bartlett with ARC Wessex as the host and coordinating centre.
We organise and create opportunities for this cohort of researchers to collaborate and develop capacities in applied dementia research. To date, this has included a Winter School (see image above), webinars, a joint networking event with the Three Schools Dementia Programme, facilitating the establishment of 12 Special Interest Groups, and creating an internship scheme to develop even more capacity.
In May 2025, we are organising a National Festival of Applied Dementia Research. This will create opportunities for the DEM-COMM cohort to engage with people outside academia, including people living with dementia, carers, and service providers.
NIHR ARC East of England is using the funding to support post-doctoral career development awards combined with co-funding from our university partners (Cambridge, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, and Essex) to help promising researchers develop their skills and establish their own research projects, programmes and networks.
DEM-COMM research fellows:
1. Dr Tamara Backhouse (UEA) - Optimising personal care assistance for people with advanced dementia
2. Dr Smruti Bulsari (Essex) – Researching in the area of dementia strategies.
3. Dr Julieta Camino (UEA) - Project TBC
4. Dr Megan Davies (UEA) How prehabilitation/rehabilitation can be implemented as a person-centred activity for people living in care homes, including those with dementia.
5. Dr Anna Dreyer - (Cambridge) – Social determinants in cognitive impairment and dementia
6. Dr Greg Windle - (Hertfordshire) - Investigating dementia-friendly community care in the East of England
DEM-COMM research fellows:
1. Dr Neil Chadborn - (Nottingham) – Access to technology and needs of people from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
2. Dr Esther Loseto-Gerritzen - (Nottingham) – Exploring the needs of people with young onset dementia in terms of care and technology.
3. Dr Orii McDermott - (Nottingham) – Addressing unmet needs of people living with young onset dementia.
DEM-COMM research fellows:
1. Dr Emma Elliott (Manchester): Deconditioning in hospitalised patients with dementia. This involves a systematic review to examine evidence of physical activity interventions for hospitalised patients with dementia. The protocol is registered on PROSPERO here.
2. Dr Sarah Fox - (Manchester) - Everyday aesthetics and the intersection of arts and health: Everyday aesthetics and the intersection of arts and health: Involves the use of a participatory approach to develop, deliver and evaluate a tailored, multi-arts social intervention with people with dementia living at home. Read more
3. Dr Jaheeda Gangannagaripalli - (Manchester) - Keep On Keep Up (KOKU) Digital technologies for falls preventions for people with dementia: The digital exercise programme is being modified for people with dementia. This fellowship will build on this to develop an intervention modification and feasibility RCT. Read more
4. Dr Sarah Smith (Manchester): Assessing the effects of physical activity interventions on the maintenance of cognitive function in midlife to reduce the risk of cognitive decline. The results of this systematic review will be explored with Public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) representatives and relevant stakeholders. Assessment of the need for a feasibility study will then follow. The protocol can be found on PROSPERO here.
DEM-COMM research fellows:
1. Dr Alessandro Bosco - (Brighton and Sussex) – Project TBC
2. Dr Georgia Bell - (Brighton and Sussex) - Loneliness and dementia
3. Dr Barbora Silarova - (Kent) - Supporting wellbeing, quality of life and access to services for those with dementia living alone or in hard-to-reach areas and their unpaid carers
4. Dr Rasa Mikelyte - (Kent) - Integration of services for seamless dementia care
Sarah Polack - (Brighton and Sussex) - Supporting well-being for people with dementia in deprived coastal communities/rural populations
The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) new dementia-focussed post-doctoral fellowships focus on:
Care and support in socially disadvantaged communities.
Care for dementia and multiple long-term conditions.
Social care to maintain independence and dignity.
The role of technology in dementia care will cut across the work programme.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr James Faraday - (Newcastle) - Mealtime care for people living with dementia in care homes.
2. Dr Steven Lyons (Newcastle) Investigating how music provides opportunities for residents in care homes to live healthy lives, build relationships and maintain independence and dignity.
3. Dr Marie Poole - (Newcastle) - Two core areas: 1. the role of new Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in the provision of dementia care for people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds; Dr Connor Richardson - (Newcastle) - An investigation into the effects of anti-inflammatory medication have on risk of in life dementia and pathology in a population representative cohort age 65 years and over using the CFAS population
4. 2. The role of sporting clubs as emerging providers of dementia support to engage with people from socially disadvantaged communities.
5. Dr Tamlyn Watermeyer - (Northumbria University) - Involving people with Learning Disabilities in dementia research & care through technological solutions.
The ARC researchers will work collaboratively on three projects:
· Development, piloting, and evaluation of community-based case-finding and support for individuals with cognitive impairment or dementia, delivered by Community Health and Wellbeing Workers (CHWWs);
· CHARIOT PRO, a prospective longitudinal, biomarker and data – enriched study of cognitively healthy individuals, aiming to evaluate key biological mechanisms and identify risk in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD); and
· eFINGER PRINT a population-based study for ADRD prevention, and includes piloting of innovative e-based assessments and interventions for self-led lifestyle change.
1. Dr Roxanna Korologou-Linden (Imperial) - Project TBC.
2. Dr Sujin Kang - (Imperial) Dr Roxanna Korologou-Linden (Imperial) Cognitive Health in Ageing Register: Investigational, Observational, and Trial Studies in Dementia Research (CHARIOT): Prospective Readiness cOhort Study(PRO).
Dr Pallavi Nair - (Imperial) - identification and support of individuals with dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the community setting by community health and wellbeing workers (CHWWs).
The NIHR ARC North West Coast projects are underpinned by a focus on health inequalities in dementia, building on the strength of our ARC and its ongoing dementia portfolio, including at the Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, which will act as a key outlet for disseminating the research nationally and internationally.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Sandra Ismail (Liverpool) - Religiosity and spirituality in risks of cognitive frailty and dementia
2. Dr Laura Prato - (Liverpool) - Dementia care navigators
3. Dr Megan Polden - (Liverpool) - Examining the impacts of singing support services for people living with dementia and their carers on well-being, quality of life, social isolation, and loneliness.
4. Dr Megan Readman - (Liverpool) - Parkinson’s disease dementia and link with hearing loss
NIHR ARC Oxford and Thames Valley researchers are active in the development of applied health and social care research across all stages of the NHS Well Pathway for Dementia: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, community support, and palliative care. Areas include:
Detailed phenotyping at pre-diagnosis and diagnosis (preventing well, diagnosing well)
Mapping diagnostic trajectories and longer-term support needs (supporting well, living well, dying well)
Reducing inequalities in dementia prevention and access to health and social care services (all NHS Well Pathway stages)
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Ting Cai - (Oxford) - Exploring preventive medications for dementia: big-data based pharmacoepidemiological research
2. Dr Padraig Dixon - (Oxford) - Understanding the cost-effectiveness of drug therapies (particularly repurposed drug therapies) to prevent and treat conditions.
3. Dr Jiamin Du - (Oxford) - Early diagnosis of dementia and real-world data.
4. Joseph Kwon - (Oxford) - Whole-disease economic modelling of dementia prevention and care
5. Dr Caroline Potter - (Oxford) - Exploring the availability and effectiveness of community-based support for enabling people to maintain health and wellbeing following initial diagnosis of dementia or its precursor (MCI).
6. Dr Subhashisa Swain - (Oxford) - Biological ageing in dementia and multimorbidity trajectories and clusters.
NIHR ARC South London is building research capacity in palliative and social care for people living with dementia through two interventions:
Co-designing a validated tool with family carers, to support care, decision-making and access to services. The Integrated Person-centred Outcome Scale in dementia (IPOS-Dem) tool includes assessment of symptoms, emotional, spiritual and information needs and will be integrated with telehealth.
Developing interventions to support care homes in better meeting residents’ spiritual needs, particularly those living with dementia from minority cultural or faith backgrounds. The research will be informed by perspectives of care home staff, residents living with dementia, and their family and friends to increase understanding of the beliefs and spiritual needs of residents living with dementia. Guidance and policies will be developed to help care home staff support spiritual care.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Annabel Farnood - (KCL) - Empowering better end of life dementia care for family carers of people with dementia’ (EMBED-Care4FamilyCarers)
2. Dr Olivia Luijnenburg - (KCL) - Spirituality in residential care for people living with dementia: implementing reflective tools for care workers of people living with dementia. (SpiritDem for short)
3. Dr Lesley Williamson - (KCL) - Using routine data to understand and improve health and social care for people with dementia near the end of life
The NIHR ARC Wessex Ageing and Dementia theme focusses on independent living with and for older people with complex health and social care needs.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
Dr Nuno Tavares - (Portsmouth) - Exploring the self-management process of other long-term conditions in people living with Dementia
Dr Catherine Murphy - (Southampton) - Dementia and continence management: Supporting homecare workers
Dr Gladys Yinusa - (Bournemouth) - TOMATO: nuTritiOn and deMentia AT hOme - Watch Gladys explain
Dr Pippa Collins (Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust) - An ethnographic exploration into the work of caring for paid homecare workers
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Katie Breheny - (Bristol) - To improve use of preference-based outcome measures in the economic evaluation of interventions for people with dementia
2. Dr Elisabeth (Lis) Grey - (Bristol) - Evaluation of a Parkinson's Treatment Hub and development of dementia interventions and evaluation tools to support people from diverse communities
3. Dr Natasha Woodstoke - (UWE) - Supporting families to adjust to a diagnosis of dementia: Adapting the LivDem intervention
The ARC funding, provided by NIHR in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society, is supporting a cohort of post-doctoral health and care researchers toward independence, developing their skills to establish their own research projects, programmes and ultimately groups.
NIHR ARC West Midlands DEM-COMM Research Fellows are:
1. Dr Paul Campbell - (Keele) - Social Care Practice
2. Dr Sue Molesworth - (Keele) - Dementia’s place within the developing ICS/ICB landscape/multidisciplinary approaches
3. Dr Chris Poyner - (Birmingham) - People living with Dementia and informal carer/family experience within a social care context.
NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber is examining how potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia intersect with ethnicity and sociodemographic factors (University of Bradford), and a quantitative investigation of the policy impact of interventions to target dementia risk factors across ethnic groups and by deprivation using cohort study and routinely available, linked health and care datasets. in addition a Alzheimer’s Society postdoctoral research fellow is focusing on prevention of dementia, taking into account wider sociodemographic factors.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Amirah Akhtar - (Bradford) - Promoting healthy lifestyles to reduce dementia risk factors in minority ethnic communities.
2. Dr Lin Gong – (Leeds) Dementia prevention and health inequalities among different ethnical groups.
3. Dr Emmanuel Nwofe (Bradford) Dementia prevention and health inequalities among different ethnical groups.
ARC South West Peninsula have awarded fellowships to 4 early-career researchers, giving them the experience and training to help them to develop into future leaders in dementia research.
DEM-COMM Research Fellows:
1. Dr Catherine Alexander - (Exeter) - IDEAL project
2. Dr Iliana Lourida - (Exeter) - TBC
3. Dr Tomasina Oh - (Plymouth) - TBC
4. Dr Hannah Wheat - (Plymouth) - D-PACT; ENLIVEN Projects