Dementia and Ageing
The Dementia and Ageing Division is an active multidisciplinary research and teaching group with an international profile in work that enhances the lives of older people and people with dementia around the world.
Our world-leading research
As part of the REF2021 submission for Social Work and Social Policy, 85 per cent of our research was judged world-leading or internationally excellent and 87 per cent of our impact activity was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent, as was the research environment.
Postgraduate study
We provide two core postgraduate degrees offering flexible, online, applied study in dementia studies and gerontology. These programmes are open to practitioners and researchers working across diverse professions who are supporting older people and people with dementia. Alumni report significant positive impact on their subsequent careers.
Our research
Our research finds innovative solutions to improve the lives of people living with dementia, and the care and support offered to families with dementia around the world.
We collaborate closely with partners in academia, practice and policy as well as directly involving people with dementia and their unpaid carers in our teaching and research work.
The Dementia Services Development Centre provides a key link from our research to the delivery of services and support to people with dementia through their international training and consultancy work and their expertise in dementia and design.
Research highlights
Our Intergenerational Living Innovation Hub delivers and demonstrates our research in social and physical environments for ageing and dementia, with an emphasis on sustainability
We host world-leading social research in dementia and gerontology. We are the home of the UKRI Social, Behavioural and Design Research programme, which seeks to provide insights into the needs and opportunities posed by an ageing population. This programme includes two projects.
- Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) explores how to create new models for housing which can support healthy cognitive ageing.
- The Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD) project is examining how technology can support older people’s health and wellbeing across generations, places and spaces.
Division researchers are part of the UKRI Connecting Generations project, which seeks to understand intergenerational connectivity in a post-Brexit and post-COVID UK society. We are also a partner of IMPACT: Improving Adult Care Together. IMPACT is the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care.
Our research also focuses on building dementia-inclusive communities for people living with dementia. The Our Connected Neighbourhoods project has produced a range of tools that can support communities to engage directly with people living with dementia to make their communities more dementia inclusive.
Our focus on evaluation of practice in dementia care research and delivery has informed the development of local and national dementia care projects. This work includes the evaluation of the activities of the Life Changes Trust. We evaluate local and national projects, including social interventions such as dementia-friendly walking groups, and the adoption of social interventions in care homes.
Our members regularly contribute to Scottish and UK wide dementia care policy development.
We are a UK leader in ageing and dementia with international collaborations in Japan, India and countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
You can also find out more about the Centre for Environment, Dementia and Ageing Research.
Postgraduate research opportunities
We offer PhD or MPhil supervision in any of the areas covered by our division. Find out about opportunities for dementia and ageing PhD research.
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Contact us
Please contact Dr Grant Gibson for any queries about the Dementia and Ageing Division.