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Rewriting the future of dementia: building a community of researchers with a shared purpose | Lucy Wilson | UK Dementia Research Institute

Despite the alarming statistic that 1 in 3 people born today will develop dementia in their lifetime, research into the neurodegenerative disease has historically been underfunded compared with other areas of medical research such as cancer.

In this episode of Research Comms, host Peter Barker explores the reasons behind that with Lucy Wilson, Director of Communications and Engagement at the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), who offers optimistic insight into how the tide is turning. 


Lucy outlines how the DRI, founded in 2017, was created to address the knowledge gap and boost the dementia research workforce across multiple UK universities. In doing so, the institute has brought together researchers from across diverse disciplines, collectively enabling a better understanding of dementia and the brain. 


This 'hub and spoke' model is not without its comms challenges, and Lucy shares her insights into how her team and their key initiatives help foster a shared sense of the DRI's purpose. 


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Show links: 


UK Dementia Research Institute


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Research Comms

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About your host

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Peter Barker

Peter is a multimedia producer with more than fifteen years experience creating documentaries, animations and other forms of digital content for TV and online. Before starting Orinoco Communications in 2016 Peter worked as a television producer and director, a job that took him all over the world, filming everywhere from NASA bases in the U.S.A. to volcanic islands in the Pacific ocean to ancient Mayan ruins in Central America. Now he has a more sedate life, living with his family by the sea on the east coast of England.