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Which brain health questions do you feel need to be answered by research? The Brain Health ARC wants to hear from people who have an interest in dementia and brain health to ensure that those affected have a say on future research. This is part of a wider project to establish a top ten list of research priorities for brain health in Scotland. Complete the survey here. 
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In April, Interact, Intersect, Inter-art: Creative Collaborations in Brain Health brought together artists, academics, and innovators at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh to explore potential research collaborations between the arts and brain health. In our definition of ‘creative arts’, we included a wide range of disciplines across music, dance, storytelling, poetry, and beyond. Throughout the course of the day, we heard from speakers representing the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scottish Ballet, Deepness Dementia Radio, National Galleries of Scotland, and Singing for Health Scotland. This included existing collaborative work, such as Scottish Ballet’s dementia-friendly Time to Dance and Dr Emily Davis’ work on Dance for Living Well with Multiple Sclerosis. Alongside the physical benefits of movement and dance, these discussions highlighted the importance of the interactive and social elements of joining and participating in a class. For Brain Health, we welcomed researchers, clinicians, and others who work on dementia or brain health across the life course, including those with lived experience. Professor Susan Shenkin presented on behalf of ENRICH (Enabling Research in Care Homes) Scotland and discussed the importance of research taking place within care homes. As a network of staff, residents, and researchers, ENRICH facilitates the design and delivery of research to improve the quality of life and care for residents. read more
We were also joined by Karen Taylor, co-founder and co-ordinator of Deepness Ltd. As the wife of Ron Coleman, co-founder and Chairperson of Deepness Ltd., she has first-hand experience of living with someone with dementia. Ron established Deepness Ltd as a space for people living with dementia to come together and live well with dementia through the media platform of the website. He has since made a life of writing poetry, plays, music, and books as he continues to thrive while living with dementia. Looking ahead to possibilities, Professor Louise Harris outlined the potential for collaboration in audiovisual composition in the arts and science, sharing her existing work on exploring simultaneous audio-visualisation as a means of both data exploration and compositional structuring. Presentations and discussions allowed an exploration of opportunities for practice, art and research in brain health and dementia to come together. The day concluded with breakout sessions to discuss next steps and initial ideas for collaboration. Following the event, we are pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for seed funding projects! Up to £5k is available for research-focused applications that form new collaborations, support people who are new to brain health research, and consider diversity and inclusion issues. Find out more and apply here. In February 2024, the Brain Health ARC, supported by Race Against Dementia, launched a national competition inviting researchers to submit proposals to access the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP)’s Bio-Hermes-001 dataset, the most comprehensive set of dementia biomarker data from ground-breaking blood testing studies for Alzheimer’s disease. Over 40 submissions were received in just over a year and in March 2025, the Data Summit showcased some of these projects in a hybrid Glasgow-based event. “Dementia progresses quickly, but traditional research moves slowly. We wanted our Data Challenge to challenge this assumption. We have shown that with collaboration, support, and a little hard work we can do things differently. Through working in partnership with GAP, and the dementia research community, in a matter of months, we have completed a portfolio of high quality, impactful research,” said Professor Terry Quinn, Director of the Brain Health ARC. The one-year timeline is extraordinary in Alzheimer’s research, where studies and clinical trials typically take years. The ambitious timeline has now proven that researchers could take an agile approach in Alzheimer’s research, demonstrating that urgency is possible. read more
"It was an honour for GAP to collaborate with the Brain Health ARC and the Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative to undertake the Bio-Hermes Data Challenge Summit. Professor Quinn and his colleagues organised the Challenge in six months and attracted a multi-disciplined group of the UK's leading researchers to interrogate the Bio-Hermes database with the assistance of ADDI to explore novel hypotheses related to Alzheimer's and related dementias. Over the ensuing year, competing teams advanced their research with unparalleled speed and rigor." said GAP President John Dwyer. Research teams showcased their concepts for a chance to win in three categories: poster presentation, quick-fire project presentation, and oral presentation. Below are the winners along with titles of their projects: Winning Poster Presentation:
This Brain Awareness Week (10 - 16 March), we are sharing videos from the wider Brain Health ARC team on why research is important them. Around one in six people in the UK have at least one neurological condition with an estimated 600,000 people diagnosed each year. A recent study found that neurological conditions are now the leading cause of ill health world wide. These conditions do not discriminate; they can affect anyone, at any age, at any time. It is likely that you or a loved one will be impacted by a neurological condition in your lifetime. Read more
Yet despite touching so many lives, neurological research receives just 8.9% of the total health research expenditure in the UK. Researchers working in the field of neurological conditions face the prospect of losing their jobs due to insecure funding, and clinical trials are severely limited in their number. We believe this needs to change – and we need your help to make it happen.
This Brain Awareness Week, the Brain Health ARC is uniting with the Neurological Alliances across Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to urge the UK Government to commit to meaningful, long term and sustained funding for research on neurological conditions. Here's how you can help:
Organised as a collaboration between the Scottish Funding Council’s Brain Health Alliance and the Quantum Technologies Alliance, the Quantum Healthcare Summit invited influential members of the healthcare and quantum technologies sectors to learn and better understand each side’s capabilities, challenges, and opportunities. Hosted at Stirling Court Hotel on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th of November, the summit welcomed healthcare professionals, from front-line staff to management, researchers and policy makers, to explore what quantum is and its potential to support and improve the healthcare sector. It was also an opportunity for quantum researchers to understand the challenges faced by the healthcare sector and the impact their research could have on end-users.
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Providing a government perspective, Faiyaz Amin, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, outlined the government’s approach to quantum sensing in healthcare.
After the break, attendees heard from Dr Jennifer Lees, University of Glasgow, on “The Good, the Bad and the Data: Exploring Clinical Datasets Dynamics” and gained insights into the capabilities of quantum computing with Dr Kenza Hammam, University of Edinburgh. Dr Charlotte Green introduced the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit and its ambition to translate academic research into solutions for unmet medical needs. Prof Melissa Mather, University of Nottingham, gave a talk on quantum diamonds and “Illuminating the Path to Neurological Therapies”. This was followed by “The NHS and Big Data”, examining safe and secure access to health data with Dr Charlie Mayor of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde SafeHaven, and a talk from Prof Gavin Morley, University of Warwick, on how diamond magnetometers can be used for surgery.
Wrapping up the morning, Dr Alex Jones, National Physical Laboratory, discussed quantum technologies for life sciences and health, while providing some welcome ‘provocations’ on the realistic status and public perception of quantum technologies to inspire debate. In the afternoon, the audience was gathered into breakout groups of mixed disciplines and backgrounds to discuss the big challenges facing the NHS and how quantum technologies could help.
The first day closed with a panel discussion, “From lab to market”, led by Dr Phil Marsden, with panellists Dr David Armstrong, Prof Daniele Faccio, Faiyaz Amin and Dr Jennifer Macfarlane, followed by a drinks reception and further opportunities to debate and discuss.
On the second day, attendees were introduced to the Brain Health ARC’s mission, aims and opportunities with Prof Terry Quinn. Prof Miles Padgett, Royal Society Research Professor and Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, gave an accessible introduction to quantum, mirroring Dr David Armstrong’s talk from an academic perspective. Attendees then heard from Joanna Crispell, Engagement Lead at Brain Health Scotland, about their mission to inspire and empower individuals to protect their brain health through better understanding dementia prevention and positive lifestyle factors. Dr Jennifer Macfarlane, SINAPSE Director and Medical Physicist at NHS Tayside introduced SINAPSE, the Scotland-wide, cross-disciplinary imaging network of scientists and clinicians, and examples of their scanning capabilities. SINAPSE are well placed at the intersection of physics and healthcare, and Dr Macfarlane gave an enlightening summary of the state-of-the-art in medical imaging, and where improvements (possibly from quantum technologies) are needed.
After the break, David Woolger, Managing Director of Cerca Magnetics, introduced the company and the origins and successes of their wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanners. This technology allows brainwaves to be recorded and analysed by lightweight, portable scanners, while the wearer moves freely, enabling the potential to analyse how the brain functions across a range of situations from talking to a loved one to playing table tennis, and much more.
Contributing a philosophical perspective, Dr Benjamin Sachs-Cobbe, University of St Andrews, gave a talk on the promise and peril of predicting one’s own future health, referencing ongoing research into dementia detection. Returning to healthcare and the cruciality of data, Dr Paul Nelson of Public Health Scotland talked the audience through the past, present and future realities and pitfalls of obtaining health data.
Prof Cristian Bonato from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University gave an overview of Q-Biomed, the UK Quantum Biomedical Sensing Research Hub (Q-BIOMED). This was followed by non-pharmacological treatment and management of Alzheimer’s disease using sensory stimulation with Dr William McGeown, Strathclyde University, and Quantum Microscopy for Healthcare Prof Daniele Faccio of the University of Glasgow. The afternoon’s breakout sessions focussed on a similar theme of finding out the biggest challenges in healthcare and mapping them to the opportunities and potential across quantum technology.
A final panel session featuring Dr Safia Qureshi, Dr Paul Nelson, Gemma Milne, and Dr Mike Tanner was hosted by Frances Hines, tackling the issue of technology accessibility within the NHS, and how this might affect the onset of quantum capabilities.
The UK government has made the development of quantum technology a priority over the next 10 years, and quantum technology for healthcare is a key focus within this mission. The breakouts and panel discussions confirmed that there is no shortage of exciting ideas around how quantum technology could shape healthcare. To make these ideas a reality, the Brain Health and Quantum Alliances are offering up to £15k seed funding for projects that meet at the intersection of these disciplines. This funding call has a specific focus on developing interventions that could be upscaled for eventual use within the NHS. [call now closed] In September, Prof Joanna Wardlaw and Prof Terry Quinn hosted a workshop on “blood flow and brain health: tackling dementia through vascular research" at the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Curious Festival. The expert panel, featuring Dr Fergus Doubal, Prof William Whiteley, Dr Lucy Stirland, Dr Una Clancy, Dr Tim Wilkinson, Dr Carmen Arteaga Reyes, Dr Katie Gallacher and Dr Tom Russ, explored the vascular causes of dementia and the latest advancements in understanding, diagnosis, treatment and public health policy related to vascular health. Additionally, attendees heard first-hand from individuals living with dementia to gain insight into how their experiences align with the efforts of scientists and policymakers to improve their quality of life. Due to the volume of insightful and relevant questions received, a Q&A has since been recorded to recap what was discussed on the day. Watch below. |
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The Brain Health Alliance for Research Challenges is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.
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