UKARFF member directory
The UK Ageing Research Funders’ Forum (UKARFF) membership encompasses organisations that provide funding for research into understanding the mechanisms of ageing and age-related disease, improving health and social care for older people and understanding ageing across the lifecourse. We also plan to convene an interest group of organisations that are users of research and advocate on behalf of older people.
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You can search for members (either interest group or funders) using the search box – or use the filter facility.
If you’re a funder of ageing-related research and you wish to enquire about membership, please email us.
If your organisation is a supporter, advocate or user of age-related research and wish to join the interest group, please send you details by clicking on the “Join the interest group” button.
Julia Dudley
Organisational summary:
Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading dementia research charity. Backed by our passionate scientists and supporters, we fund and deliver pioneering research. We challenge the way people think about dementia and bring together the people and organisations who can speed up progress. Reflecting the main challenges and opportunities for progress in dementia research, we have distilled our research strategy into three priority areas that must be tackled to make a difference to people’s lives: treatment, diagnosis and prevention. For more information read: Our research strategy – Alzheimer’s Research UK
Katherine Gray
Organisational summary:
Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading research and support charity for people with dementia, their families and carers. Dementia affects over 900,000 people in the UK, many are undiagnosed and facing the realities of their condition alone. As a Society, and with the help of our supporters, we’re changing that. Alzheimer’s Society has been a proud funder of innovative dementia research for over 30 years and are dedicated to improving diagnosis, finding new treatments and improving the care and support that is available for people living with dementia. The Society’s pioneering research programme, in collaboration with scientists, health professionals and people affected by dementia, ensures that research is addressing the greatest challenges in dementia. At Alzheimer’s Society we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives. We do this by giving help to those living with dementia today, and providing hope for the future.
Lucy Hackett
Organisational summary:
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds world-class researchers in a wide range of arts and humanities areas, from philosophy and the creative industries to product design and health research. AHRC works collaboratively with UKRI councils to fund interdisciplinary ageing research. Some themes within AHRC’s ageing research portfolio include arts and creativity, design research, experience of ageing, and social connectivity.
Sadhana Sharma
Organisational summary:
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) aims to promote research that will lead to improved understanding of the maintenance of health across the whole life course, and provide knowledge and evidence to improve human health and wellbeing throughout life. For more information about our funding in this area, visit our ageing-related research website.
Sarah Mistry
Organisational summary:
The British Geriatrics Society is the membership association for more than 5000 healthcare professionals, united by a mission of improving healthcare for older people. Our multidisciplinary members work in acute, primary and community care settings in the NHS and in academia across the four countries of the UK.
Older people are the group who use health and care services the most. People live longer lives now than a generation ago, but many still spend their last years with ill-health and disability, often as a result of increasing frailty and other long-term conditions associated with ageing. The BGS’s members work to provide joined-up, person-centred care for older people in a system that is not generally well-designed for their complex needs. We seek to influence national, regional and local policy. We provide education and training and publish resources that help those who work with older people to improve their professional practice. We support research and evidence-building through our academic journal, Age and Ageing. We promote research opportunities, capacity-building and academic career pathways, partnering with Dunhill Medical Trust on our joint Doctoral Fellowship Scheme.
Ben Wilcock
Organisational summary:
The British Society for Immunology’s mission is to support our immunology community in driving scientific discovery and making a positive impact on health. We accomplish this by:
- Providing the immunology community with support to establish more connections and enhance collaboration, both within their field and with other related scientific disciplines and between sectors.
- Providing sector-leading support to attract and retain talent in immunology.
- Influencing and improving the external environment to enable immunology to thrive and deliver positive outcomes for health.
As part of out work, we support researchers with an interest in the ageing immune system. Click here to find out more about our work with the CARINA (Catalyst Reducing Immune Ageing) Network, and read more about our strategic ambition here.
Dominique Radcliffe
Organisational summary:
In January 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) outlined three areas of research interest:
- Early action to prevent poor health incomes
- Reduction of compound pressures on the NHS and social care
- Shaping and supporting the health and social care workforce of the future
To complement these areas of research interest the DHSC, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) policy research programme, awarded over £100 million to 20 policy research units. The previous Older People and Frailty Policy Research Unit has been renamed to Healthy Ageing, to reflect departmental priorities. The Healthy Ageing Policy Research Unit will consider research areas such as improving healthy life expectancy, physical activity, prevention and supporting people to stay in or return to work. The Healthy Ageing Policy Research Unit will commence in January 2024 and has been commissioned for 5 years.
Anna Morris
Organisational summary:
The ageing-related research priorities of Diabetes UK centre on how we can better understand the diverse needs of older people with diabetes, and use this to make care more personalised? For example:
- Where can we make changes to existing diabetes care for older people to address needs that aren’t currently being met?
- How can we identify what non-specialist healthcare professionals most critically need to know about diabetes care for older people, and develop training tools to address these gaps?
- How can we best provide older people with diabetes with virtual access to experts?
- How can diet and exercise be used to prevent frailty and manage type 2 diabetes? And how can this be delivered in a way that is acceptable to older people with type 2 from any background?
- How can Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) technology best be used in older people?
- How can technology, education and support from healthcare professionals be used to better empower older people to manage their diabetes in their own home?
- What are the benefits of peer support for older people with diabetes, both when living at home or in a care home?
Further information regarding our ageing-related research priorities can be found in the following publication: Ageing well with diabetes: A workshop to co‐design research recommendations for improving the diabetes care of older people