Trials Delivery Framework

Image of five older people standing together in a park, talking and laughing

Our Trials Delivery Framework is establishing an engine for testing new treatments for dementia. Its aim is to bring the right people to the right place for the right project.

This precision-matching of volunteers to early-phase trials based on detailed genetic and observed characteristics will ensure that researchers testing therapies and interventions can understand quickly and robustly what works – and what doesn't. Study participants will be recruited both from pre-clinical registries and through clinical referrals.

Find out more in our Q&A with the Trials Delivery Framework's lead researcher, Dr Vanessa Raymont.

Our volunteer registries

DPUK runs two pre-clinical registries of public volunteers: Great Minds and the Clinical Studies Register. Study sponsors can use these resources to find the right participants for their project – whether it's an experimental study or a clinical trial.

Researchers at Oxford University are recruiting volunteers aged 50+ who have either mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early-stage dementia, as well as neurologically healthy people as an essential comparison to those with memory impairment.

Great Minds is an opt-in pool of around 6,800 highly characterised research volunteers from existing DPUK-affiliated cohort studies and the nationwide Join Dementia Research register. These volunteers undergo regular additional assessment of memory and mood, and have expressed their willingness to take part in experimental medicine studies and clinical trials for dementia.

Find out more on the Great Minds website.

Anxiety and depression are more important predictors of cognitive decline than factors such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, new analysis has shown.

Our Clinical Studies Register comprises more than 58,000 research participants who have already undergone extensive characterisation and have pre-existing consent for re-contact through their parent DPUK cohort.

By combining detailed phenotyping and, where available, genomic data from cohorts, the Clinical Studies Register enables risk stratification per hypothesis at a level of detail and convenience that would not otherwise be available.

Run a study with our volunteers

We have developed interactive feasibility tools to enable researchers to determine the number of Great Minds or Clinical Studies Register members that meet their study's requirements. You can register for and use this service via the DPUK Data Portal.

If you already know you would like to recruit participants from Great Minds or the Clinical Studies Register, please sign up for a researcher account on our customer relationship management system. Once your registration has been approved, you'll be able to log in and apply for volunteers using the same site.

Our partners

The Trials Delivery Framework is closely aligned with DPUK's Experimental Medicine Incubator, aiding with participant recruitment, stratification and case validation for pre-clinical experimental studies. It operates in conjunction with the NIHR's Join Dementia Research initiative and the Scottish Brain Health Register.

Clinical research centres of excellence

As the Trials Delivery Framework develops, it will work with clinical brain health facilities and memory clinics across the UK to create research 'centres of excellence'. This will significantly improve the process of study set-up, recruitment, retention and delivery in dementia research. Three sites have already been identified, and we are establishing relationships with commercial organisations to further streamline trial set-up. We are also developing collaborations with similar networks internationally to facilitate worldwide multi-site trials.