Free NRS Ageing webinar set to share vital learnings from dementia and brain health priority setting
The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Ageing Specialty Group will be presenting an insightful webinar next month discussing approaches to effective priority setting around dementia and brain health happening across the country
Entitled ‘Prioritising Research Questions: An example from dementia and brain health in Scotland’, the Microsoft Teams webinar will take place on Wednesday 21 October, from 3-4pm.
Professor Terry Quinn, Clinical Lead for NRS Ageing, is leading the online session which brings together a diverse range of speakers to offer their insights on determining the most pressing questions for future study into improving understanding around reducing the risk of cognitive decline.
It will see five speakers — including both healthcare professionals and public contributors — offering their learnings while inviting further discussion.
In addition to leading the NRS Ageing Specialty, Professor Quinn is also Professor in Cardiovascular Ageing and Honorary Consultant Physician in Stroke and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Glasgow. He will provide a welcome and introduction to the session, followed by a strong line-up of speakers who are aligned in ambitions for improving research.
Dr Lucy Beishon, Clinical Associate Professor in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Leeds, will be offering her thoughts on previous priority setting projects in dementia. Her current research interests focus on developing an integrated physical-mental health service for older people on inpatient mental health units. Lucy is a recipient of many grant awards enabling research around people living with severe mental illness and dementia.
Fenna Lunter, a visiting researcher from the Netherlands, will be discussing a Scottish priority setting exercise, leveraging her insights drawn from working with Brain Health ARC to help define the most important questions for future research around dementia and other brain health challenges.
Rounding off the presentations will be Winnie Henry and David Ross — co-authors of the book Challenging Assumptions Around Dementia: User-Led Research and Untold Stories — who will be discussing the need for ‘Assisting with priority setting as a public contributor’.
The book was spearheaded by members of Partners in Research, a Patient and Public Involvement Group started by the NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network. It is available online free of charge following a grant from the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) and includes lived experiences from Winnie and David.
Both will discuss how people like them can positively influence the direction of research.
The webinar will conclude with a Q&A segment. Professor Quinn said: “The concept of improving brain health to help prevent dementia is vital, particularly amid rising cases, making it undoubtedly one of the leading causes of death in Scotland.
“It is therefore incredibly important that we effectively establish clinical trial priorities, and this webinar will help us to gather learnings in the pursuit of identifying those key avenues of research.
“We hope you can join us and contribute to the discussion.”
The role of the NRS Ageing Specialty Group is to support the delivery of high-quality clinical research relevant to the care of older people. It helps to manage participant recruitment to time and target, both for studies which are led from Scotland, and studies led from other nations which Scottish sites are participating in.
Publication date: 9th September 2026
