Dementia Researcher: Careers, community and support for early career dementia researchers.
This week
Join 2,200+ early career researchers
Ask questions, share advice and meet people at the same stage as you.
Join the community
Free Tools & Resources for New Research Leaders (2026)
Free guides, courses, templates, software, books and podcasts for new PIs and research leaders, plus ideas borrowed from business and education.




Career toolkit
All careers contentLatest career guides All career guides
Build your career in dementia research.
Every path into dementia research looks different, so explore real careers from nurses, engineers, clinicians and scientists, and start mapping your own. Explore our brand new interactive career planning tool to find your own path through a career in research.
Get Planning
Doctor → ResearcherTerry Quinn an unexpected career in dementia research
Undergraduate → ResearchHoney Blossom McLaughlin a route into Dementia Research
Neuroscience → ProfessorPatrick Lewis on building a Career in Dementia Research
Speech therapy → ResearchAnna Volkmer on building a research career around better conversations
Technician → ResearchAnna Tierney a technical route into dementia research
Software engineer → ResearchOluwatosin Olubanke: a software engineer’s career
Social work → ResearchJoanne Bush on bringing social work into dementia research
Palliative care → ResearchTharin Phenwan a career in dementia research
Biomedicine → EpidemiologyConnor Richardson on building a career in dementia epidemiology
Summer placement → PhDSofianna Nouka from a Summer Placement to a Dementia PhD
Clinical genetics → PhDAdriana Perez Grovas from clinical genetics to a PhD
Scientist → ProfessorLouise Serpell on Research, People and Changing Direction
Nursing → ResearchGillian Eaglestone from Nursing to Dementia Research
Nursing → ResearchGemma Willingham-Storr making dementia research inclusive
Psychology → FellowshipTamlyn Watermeyer on following curiosity in dementia research
Teacher → ResearcherClaire Rowley from Teaching to Dementia Research
Neurologist → AcademicDavid Whiteside on building a clinical academic career
Career break → IndependenceKira Shaw on Returning to Research and Building Independence
Nursing → PhDJanine Lane From Dementia Nursing to a PhD
Chief exec → PhDPaul Newman on moving from chief executive to doctoral researcher
Sydney → OxfordAjantha Abey on finding a route into dementia research
Nursing → Research leaderEmma Law from dementia nursing to research leadership
Clinician → ResearcherRichard Talbot a clinical route into dementia research
Portfolio career → PhDRachel McHendry on building a career in dementia research
Academia → IndustryFiona Ducotterd on a career in dementia drug discovery
Psychology → ResearchSunny Chan on building a Career in Dementia ResearchOpportunities
All opportunities



















Get the weekly bulletin
New jobs, funding calls, events and the week's best reads, every Friday. Free.
Most read this week
- 1BRAINIAC: £20m Hub to Build AI for Ten NHS Brain Health ClinicsResearch news
- 2Free Tools & Resources for New Research Leaders (2026)Careers
- 3Gemma Willingham-Storr making dementia research inclusiveResearcher Stories
- 4Honey Blossom McLaughlin a route into Dementia ResearchResearcher Stories
- 5Young-Onset Dementia: England’s Hidden PopulationResearch news
- 6Fixed-Term Contracts: What UK Researchers Are Entitled ToCareers
- 7How to Secure Your First Postdoc RoleCareers
- 8PhD Salary in Europe: What Doctoral Candidates Are Paid in 29 CountriesResearch news
- 9Alzheimer Europe Conference 2026 Highlights – Part 1Podcast
- 10Professor Cath Mummery, University College LondonProfile
Ranked by views over the last seven days.
Blogs
All blogs
- How COVID-19 Lockdown Affected People with Dementia
Beccy Owen looks at what the COVID-19 lockdown meant for people living with dementia, from lost routine and social contact to sleep, stress and family carers.
- Collaborating Across Borders and Disciplines in Dementia Research
Heather Wilkinson and Fauzia Knight on how a seed-funded link between King's and Edinburgh grew into poetry workshops, an exhibition and new grant ideas.
- Transforming People & Culture in a Low-Resource Environment
Dr Becky Carlyle on improving research culture in a skint department: start with the data, show people you listened, and only write policy when it helps.
- Why Research Culture Needs More Than Good Intentions
Dr Yvonne Couch borrows from organisational psychology to ask what research culture really means, and why it follows what we reward, not what we say.
- Celebrating Scottish Research: A Carer on PPI
Carer and PPI member Fiona Hartley on the Celebrating Scottish Research conference in Stirling, co-production, and why other conditions matter in dementia.
- Care Home Research: Getting the Balance Right
Lesley Cousland of ENRICH Scotland asks what eight research requests landing at once mean for a busy care home, and how to coordinate studies better.
Meet the researchers
All profilesPodcasts
All podcasts
In the second of our Alzheimer Europe 2026 Conference podcasts, Felicity Slocombe, Andy Northcott, Tiffeny James & Gianna Kohl share their highlights.
Watch or listen
In the first of our Alzheimer Europe 2026 Conference podcasts from Dublin, Jodi Watt, Rasa Mikelyte, Julieta Camino and Catherine Quinn share their highlights.
Watch or listen
Dr Jenny Rabin and Dr Louise Schindler on why heart health shapes women's dementia risk, from midlife blood pressure to menopause, HRT and GLP-1s.
Watch or listen
In this podcast, Sarah Marzi, Georgina Charlesworth, Nathan Davies and Amanda Heslegrave share how to start and manage academic collaborations that work.
Watch or listenShorts
All shortsLatest
Research newsREF 2029 final guidance: what changes for researchers
CareersHow to Secure Your First Postdoc Role
Research newsParkinson’s: beyond the brain
Researcher StoriesAnna Volkmer on building a research career around better conversations
Research newsResearch England to end research culture funding from 2027-28
Research newsResearch Participant Voices: Insights from the NIHR Participant in Research Experience Survey 2025/26
ProfileDr Julieta Camino de la Llosa, University of East Anglia
Research newsBRAINIAC: £20m Hub to Build AI for Ten NHS Brain Health Clinics
Events
All eventsJust added
Newly listed, so there is still time to book.
Coming up
Happening soonest.
Collections
All collectionsFinding data, coding, modelling, p-values, pre-registration, presenting results and open science. Everything between question and answer, in one collection.
Pack Your Pipettes: Moving Lab, City and CountryChanging lab, university or country? Pack Your Pipettes brings together researchers who've packed the boxes, moved the grant and lived to tell the tale.
World Brain Day Special: Who Gets Brain Health?A World Brain Day special: four blogs and two podcasts on brain health, prevention and inequalities in dementia, and who gets left out of…
Research With People – PPIE EssentialsExplore our PPIE archive collection, bringing together blogs, podcasts, webinars and articles on involving people in dementia research.
Partner blogs
All partner blogs- Research Participant Voices: Insights from the NIHR Participant in Research Experience Survey 2025/266 Nov 2026
- Will an M-index to measure academic mentorship create more problems than it solves?6 Nov 2026
- How to compare and strengthen research systems3 Nov 2026
- The shifting sands of research independence: why mid-career scientists crave security3 Nov 2026
- The visibility problem in academic policy engagement3 Nov 2026









