TAnDem academic environment

The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a global reputation that has yielded major social science breakthroughs in areas such as international human rights law; geospatial technology; ethical business practices; globalisation and economic policy; and citizenship and transnational migration. Ranked 8th on research power among UK universities in REF2014, it currently hosts 19 doctoral training centres with more than 400 places in total. These range from subject-specific DTCs with a handful of PhD candidates to larger centres accredited by the research councils, including the new Midlands3Cities Arts and Humanities Research Council partnership which involves six universities and offers a total of 82 places.

The Centre for Dementia Research is based at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), University of Nottingham, which is a partnership between Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham. Led by Professor Martin Orrell, the IMH is the UK’s prime location for inter-disciplinary research in the mental health field (psychiatry, psychology, sociology, business, law, nursing, economics and statistics). The Centre for Dementia Research is the Institute’s newest research unit, headed by Professor Tom Dening. The Centre brings together dementia-related research and service development activities that involve about 30 Nottingham academics, and include several arts-related projects.

The University of Worcester has a growing commitment to research. It was one of the most improved Universities for research in the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF2014). It has invested significantly in developing its research environment and infrastructure over the last 5 years and this has facilitated a five-fold increase in its research income over that period, a continued growth in its research student numbers and the development of a number of areas of research excellence of which Dementia Studies is perhaps the most prominent example.

The Association for Dementia Studies (ADS) was established as a Research Centre at the University of Worcester in 2009 under the leadership of Professor Dawn Brooker. It has established an international reputation as a centre of innovation and excellence in dementia research and education and policy advice. From its inception, ADS has focused on working proactively at the interface between the experience of those living with dementia, those developing care practice and those undertaking research to ensure that there is real knowledge transfer and translation between these different world-views. ADS brings multi-professional expertise in clinical, social and health psychology, nursing, social work, gerontology, occupational therapy, policy analysis, medicine, primary care and psychiatry numbering about 30 staff to this task.