Race Against Dementia

Club charity 2017-2021
 

A global crisis

There are currently estimated to be 50 million people worldwide living with dementia.  This figure is expected to rise to 152 million by 2050, with one in three people born today expected to die with dementia.  Progress towards treatments for dementia has been achingly slow.  There are not yet any disease-modifying medicines available.  More research is urgently needed, and moreover we need to innovate to accelerate the pace of results.  

Race Against Dementia

Race Against Dementia, founded by Formula One racing legend, Sir Jackie Stewart, raises and allocates funds to research and development in the race to find a prevention or treatment for dementia.

We do this through 4 key tenets:

• YOUNG TALENT. Identifying and financially backing the most talented early-career researchers.

• INNOVATION. We provide catalyst funding, enabling researchers to pursue higher risk, innovative ideas that might not get funded by the mainstream. 

• SPEED.  We aim to instil a ‘Formula 1 attitude’ in attention to detail and urgency, to accelerate the pace of solutions development.

• GLOBAL.  We form strong alliances with research centres of excellence on a global basis.

The RAD Approach 

In October 2018, the Race Against Dementia (RAD) Fellowship Programme was launched, with an initial investment of £2.5m. Run in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) and The Mayo Clinic in the US, RAD will draw from the most promising early-career scientific talent around the world.  The programme will not only accelerate their personal research agendas, but also aspires to catalyse a change in research culture. 

As well as financial backing, five-year Race Against Dementia Fellowships provide unique developmental opportunities for collaboration with world-leading dementia scientists and high-level mentoring from McLaren F1 and Red Bull Racing, both leading innovators in the world of F1. 

RAD’s vision is to expand the Fellowship programme globally; to create a scientific community of exemplary practice, fuelled by collaboration with Formula 1 and other fast-moving fields of innovation, that will drive a culture change in dementia research to greater, faster achievement. 

Our Challenge

As long as people believe dementia to be a natural and inescapable part of the aging process, this research will not get the focus that it needs.  We need to get the message out that dementia is caused by diseases for which there must be cures.  We just need to find them.