The new BRAINIAC Hub (AI and Emerging Technologies for Next Generation Brain Health Clinics) brings together leading researchers from 11 universities and 10 NHS sites across the UK.

Funded by £10 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the hub will receive a further £10 million from industry, charity and NHS partners.

Brain health clinics roll out across UK

Over the next six years, BRAINIAC will support the development of 10 new brain health clinics across the UK.

These clinics will help reduce dementia risk, accelerate diagnosis, and create one of the world's largest research platforms focused on understanding what works to diagnose, prevent and treat dementia.

Dr Judith Harrison, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer - Old Age Psychiatry at Newcastle University, said: “Dementia diagnosis often comes too late, after people and their families have spent months or even years seeking answers.

“At Newcastle University, we're excited to be part of BRAINIAC, bringing together our expertise in dementia research, clinical care and artificial intelligence to help change that.

“By combining new technologies with the expertise of NHS clinicians, we hope to identify people at risk earlier, when there is the greatest opportunity to intervene.

“Ultimately, this is about giving people more time to make informed decisions about their health, while developing approaches that can make dementia assessment faster, more accessible and more sustainable for the NHS.”

The first BRAINIAC clinics are expected to begin opening in 2029 and will initially be accessible through NHS referral.

Around 982,000 people in the UK currently live with dementia, a figure projected to reach 1.4 million by 2040. Annual costs to the UK are expected to rise to more than £90 billion over the same period.

Despite advances in research, around one-third of people living with dementia have never received a formal diagnosis, while many others face lengthy waits for specialist assessment.

Professor David Llewellyn, Director of BRAINIAC and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Digital Health at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "Nearly a million people in the UK have dementia, and the hardest problem is detecting the earliest changes so we know who can benefit from treatment and prevention.

“The tools we build in these NHS clinics will let us pick up the first signs before symptoms show and offer people a personalised prevention plan to help them keep their brains sharp for longer."

Scientific advances are rapidly improving the ability to identify dementia in its earliest stages. Blood tests can now detect signs of Alzheimer's disease years before symptoms become apparent, while brain imaging, digital cognitive assessments and emerging treatments are creating new opportunities for earlier intervention.

BRAINIAC will develop AI systems capable of combining blood biomarkers, brain imaging, genetics, electronic health records, and digital cognitive assessments into a single, comprehensive picture of brain health. These technologies will be developed and tested directly within NHS brain health clinics, ensuring they are ready for routine clinical use.

The hub will work with more than 1,700 patients and aims to:

• Reduce assessment and diagnosis times by 30-50 per cent.
• Identify more than 40 per cent of people at risk before symptoms develop.
• Create one of the UK's largest trial-ready groups of patients for dementia research.
• Enable people to complete assessments at home through online platforms and apps.

The clinics will also be connected through secure systems that allow hospitals to share AI models without sharing patient data.

People living with dementia and carers will help co-design the technologies throughout the project, working alongside Innovations in Dementia. Alzheimer's Society will support efforts to bring successful innovations into NHS practice.

Developing the future dementia workforce

BRAINIAC will additionally train more than 200 clinicians and engineers and support between 10 and 20 small companies seeking to bring new technologies into healthcare.

Professor Chris Fox, Deputy Director of BRAINIAC, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Exeter Medical School and practising clinician, said: "Every week I see people who have waited far too long to be seen, and how little we can offer once dementia is advanced. The treatments now arriving only help if we find people early. BRAINIAC will give the NHS the tools to do that at scale, designed with patients and clinicians from the start so they work in a busy clinic and not just on paper."

Led by the University of Exeter, BRAINIAC brings together researchers from the Universities of Newcastle, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Strathclyde and Swansea, Imperial College London, Queen Mary University of London, Queen's University Belfast and UCL, alongside ten NHS sites across all four nations of the UK.

Minister of State for Social Care, including dementia, Alison McGovern, said: "Dementia has been neglected for far too long, and even before the introduction of our new National Care Service, this government is taking action to change that, launching the BARBARA Alliance partnership to accelerate research, backing more drugs in clinical trials, turbocharging trial participation to 2,000 people across the next five years, recruiting a new Dementia Tsar, and publishing the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia.

"By investing in ground-breaking hubs like this one in Exeter, we will continue to deliver new research and treatments and put science and technology at the heart of our efforts to transform care and support for people living with dementia and their families.

"And I would encourage anyone interested in joining the fight against dementia to search 'Join Dementia Research' to find out how they can take part."