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Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals

Updated 23 October 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-sciences-healthcare-goals/dame-barbara-windsor-dementia-goals

What we do

Dementia is the leading cause of death in England and Wales and one in two people will be directly affected by it, either they will care for someone with the condition, develop it themselves, or both. It also has a high social cost, as supporting older people with dementia in England is estimated to cost around £40 billion in 2025, based on 2015 prices. This cost is expected to rise to around £80 billion by 2040.

On 14 August 2022, the government first launched the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals. The programme now has up to £150 million expected to be allocated to, or aligned with it and is chaired by Hilary Evans-Newton CBE.

Reiterated through the government’s ambitions set out in the 10 Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan, the programme aims to realise a new generation of precision dementia therapies and solutions for the UK, by accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials and implementation.

The programme has supported the establishment of The BARBARA Alliance (previously known as the ‘Neurodegeneration Initiative’), a £48 million UK-wide not-for-profit partnership bringing together government, industry, academia, charities and people with lived experience of dementia, backed by £33 million of Government investment and £15 million from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures.

Led by interim CEO Jessamy Baird, MBE, the work of The BARBARA Alliance will support the Dementia Goals programme objectives around developing innovations in biomarkers, data and digital sciences, increasing the number and speed of clinical trials in dementia and neurodegeneration and supporting the regulators and health system on implementation. This will enable faster set-up and running of clinical trials to ensure more new treatments are developed and made available to patients sooner than otherwise.

The BARBARA Alliance is currently delivering a proof of concept study for its flagship programme ‘BARBARA’ - Brain Ageing Registry for Biomarkers, Access to trials, Research, and Adoption. We will continue to work with The BARBARA Alliance to support the securing of further partners to grow its portfolio of investments. More information can be found on The BARBARA Alliance’s website.

So far, via Innovate UK, the Dementia Goals programme has:

  • provided ten projects with a share of £6 million to accelerate innovations in dementia biomarker detection to transform clinical trials and precision therapies
  • awarded four UK companies a share of £4.8 million to enable organisations to evaluate blood-based and digital biomarkers as part of the Bio-Hermes-002 study, an international study led by the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® (GAP)
  • invested £2 million into the READ-OUT study, which aims to capitalise on recent breakthroughs in potential dementia blood tests, and generate the evidence needed for them to be validated for use in the NHS within the next five years. Of this funding, £1.2 million has been allocated to two projects that will support the integration of high-quality digital cognitive tools into the study

Through the programme, the Medical Research Council launched an £18 million funding call that has invested £16.5 million into five studies to help researchers, patients and industry partners work together to better understand how dementia begins and progresses. The studies will help identify new ways to treat or slow down the diseases before symptoms worsen. Each project will work with the programme to ensure that discoveries in experimental medicine contribute directly to speeding up the development of new treatments for dementia. You can find out more on the UKRI website.

The programme also supports:

  • the Medical Research Council’s £20 million investment into a Dementia Trials Accelerator, which aims to embed more innovation in how clinical trials are designed and delivered in order to increase the speed and quality, while driving down the cost of large-scale trials. This is being led by Health Data Research UK and the UK Dementia Research Institute
  • NIHR’s aligned investment of up to £50 million into the UK Dementia Trials Network (UKDTN),  which seeks to speed up early-stage clinical trials

Links to the announcements of these investments can be found in the links at the bottom of this page.

Who we are

The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme is chaired by Hilary Evans-Newton CBE.

Hilary Evans-Newton CBE, Chair of the Dementia Goals.

Hilary Evans-Newton CBE is the Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, where she has led the transformation of the charity to one of the leading medical research charities in the UK, and the largest charitable funder of dementia research in Europe.  She has overseen a significant growth in income, enhancing Alzheimer’s Research UK’s ability to fund innovative projects.

Under her leadership Alzheimer’s Research UK has focused on ground-breaking projects that unite charity, academic and private sectors to drive forward progress towards a treatment for the diseases that cause dementia. With Hilary at the helm, the charity has set up the pioneering Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Alliance, helped develop and launch the Dementia Discovery Fund, UK Dementia Research Institute and established global collaborations with other funders and institutions.

The BARBARA Alliance is led by Jessamy Baird, MBE, as interim CEO, and supported by an expert scientific and operational team, bringing experience from the dementia field and life sciences and start up sectors. Jessamy brings a wealth of experience in healthcare and the Life Sciences industry, with her most recent role as General Manager and Country Lead for Sanofi UK and Ireland, where she drove scientific advancements, improved patient outcomes, and shaped the future of healthcare.

Jessamy has also been a Board Director and Vice President for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), and Chair of the European Medicines Group (EMG). Jessamy’s leadership and contributions to the industry were recognised in 2024 when she was awarded an MBE for services to healthcare innovation.

Jessamy’s career has spanned the pharmaceutical industry, academia and the NHS and she is passionate about bringing benefit to the people and patients we serve. Jessamy has held Non-Executive Board level roles in the NHS for over 10 years across a variety of NHS organisations, including Mental Health, Community Care and Learning Disability NHS Trusts as well as those involved in commissioning services for people in primary and secondary care across Hampshire.

The programme is advised by several expert advisors and advisory forums, including the:

  • Scientific Advisory Board
  • People’s Forum
  • System Partners Engagement Forum

Scientific Advisory Board

A world-leading board with global scientific, clinical and regulatory expert members who provide strategic advice on the Dementia Goals’ scientific plan and priorities. This is chaired by Dr Ruth McKernan, a neuroscientist with a distinguished career in both the public and private sector. She is currently an Operating Partner at SV Health Investors and the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and is a Trustee of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

She is a co-founder of 5 Biotech companies including AstronauTx, Cumulus Neuroscience and Draig Therapeutics. Ruth was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Innovate UK and a Council Member for the Medical Research Council. She has 25 years of research and development experience in the pharmaceutical industry including heading Pfizer’s Discovery Technology Centre in Boston and leading the Sandwich site in the UK. Prior to that she was Head of the Merck Neuroscience Research Centre.

People’s Forum

A forum that will ensure that unmet needs of individuals and caregivers, as defined by them, are met through proactive engagement, partnership and transparency. This is chaired by the programme’s People’s Champion, Scott Mitchell, husband of the late Dame Barbara Windsor, after whom the Dementia Goals programme is named. Scott has made a profound contribution to the nation’s awareness of dementia, as a vocal advocate for both research and care alongside Barbara. He was an ambassador for Alzheimer’s Research UK between 2021 and 2025, where he raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for vital dementia research, as well as working with other dementia charities in the sector to raise awareness.

System Partners Engagement Forum

A forum that brought together key UK system partners to provide strategic guidance and readiness support, helping healthcare systems prepare for the introduction of new dementia treatments. This work is now being progressed through wider DHSC programmes.

Professor Nadeem Sarwar was Founding Co-Chair of the Dementia Goals programme from 2023 to 2026.

Find out more about the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme and related work:

Contact details

You can contact the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals by emailing dementiagoals@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.

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