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NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia launch new strategy
2nd December 2021
The new strategy lays out how the Network will involve, engage with, and support people with lived experience of neuroprogressive conditions or dementia.
The 2022 - 2027 strategy is built around 7 key areas of focus:
- Partners in Research
- Recruitment
- Enabling Research in Care Homes (ENRICH)
- Engagement
- Scottish Dementia Brain Tissue Network
- Delivering Clinical Research
- The Future
Writing in the strategy's foreword, Professor David Crossman, Chief Scientist (Health) said:
"I am pleased in my role as Chief Scientist for Health within the Scottish Government to support this strategy.
"The conditions that come under the remit of the Network are always challenging to patients and their loved ones and can often be life-changing. Recent advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of these conditions have been possible because of research, and in particular the willingness of patients to participate in clinical trials.
"The NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network has played a key role in enabling many of these clinical trials to take place in Scotland, thereby offering patients from across the country, and living with different conditions, the opportunity to participate in research.
"Looking forward, I am optimistic that, as our knowledge increases, patients will benefit both from earlier diagnosis, and from highly personalised, evidence-based approaches to treating and managing their conditions."
Also endorsing the strategy, Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Director of the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, the Euan MacDonald Centre, and the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, University of Edinburgh, said:
“Disorders of the ageing brain are a major and growing public health threat. Scotland, enabled by the pioneering NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network, is ideally placed to spearhead the clinical research that is essential to improving the outcomes of people living with these devastating conditions.”
About the Network
Since 2008, the NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Clinical Research Network has worked to spread a culture of research across Scotland and improve recruitment from both urban and rural areas.
Since then the network has grown and evolved - in 2012, NRS NDN was welcomed into the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium linking researchers across Europe.
In 2015, the portfolio expanded to include:
- Motor Neurone Disease
- Parkinson's Disease
- Huntington's Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
In 2016, the Network was renamed NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia (NRS NDN), and since then has been a key part of high-profile research taking place across Scotland - including the ongoing MND-SMART trial, and as a key driver of ENRICH (Enabling Research in Care Homes) Scotland.
