Introducing the

Disruption Awards

From small things to big ideas

Have a spark that could brighten life with dementia? We want to help you grow it. Grants of up to £15,000 are available to individuals, groups and organisations ready to turn thoughtful ideas into practical change alongside people living with dementia and their carers.

Why call them “Disruption” Awards?

Because even a gentle nudge can reshape what’s possible.

We back projects that:

  • Offer a fresh take on everyday challenges of dementia

  • Are co‑created with people who live the experience

  • Reach communities that too often miss out

  • Share learning openly so good ideas travel fast

We don’t fund research, but we will ask you to evaluate the impact your project has. You don’t need pages of academic data, but please show the difference your work makes.

How this programme supports our 2025‑28 Strategy

The Awards sit at the heart of two of our Strategic Goals: Accelerate Practical Innovation and Champion Inclusive Practice.

Our awardees test new approaches, capture what works and feed insights back into wider Trust programmes—and the wider sector working for and with people with dementia and their carers .

Read our Strategy ➜ Dementia Trust 2025‑28 Strategy

Who can apply?

  • Charities, CICs, social enterprises, community groups

  • Partnerships and cross‑sector collaborations

  • Individuals with relevant lived or professional experience (references required)

Projects may be UK‑based or international. We especially welcome applications led by, or co‑designed with, people who have dementia.

Note one application per lead organisation per year.

How the process works

How the two‑stage process works

  1. Stage 1 – Short online form
    Submit by 9 July and tell us who you are, what you hope to change and why it matters.

  2. Stage 2 – Friendly conversation (Invite only)
    Short‑listed applicants chat with a Trustee and our Advisor to explore ambition, feasibility and fit. No extra paperwork.

Trustees then make the final decision. Successful projects usually start within six weeks.

What support comes with your grant?

  • A named Dementia Trust Advisor for troubleshooting and networking

  • Peer‑learning huddles with fellow awardees

  • Storytelling and communications boosts via our channels

  • Light‑touch guidance on evaluation and Creative Commons licensing

Ownership & sharing

Award‑holders keep full intellectual property rights to everything they create with the grant. Dementia Trust simply asks for a non‑exclusive, royalty‑free licence to share and showcase your work so others can learn from it.

Wherever possible, we encourage open licences such as CC‑BY so your ideas can travel further.

 

Ready to start something?

Deadline for Stage 1 applications: 9 July 2025

Past Award Highilghts

Windrush 3D VR Museum Tour

Tackling racial disparities in dementia care 

Carer Coaching Project

Focused on empowering caregivers, this project offered coaching and support to help carers recognise and utilize their skills in the workplace.

South Asian Carers Support Awareness video

This project saw the short film ‘Only One Six’ created through discussion between the filmmaker and local people who are carers from South Asian backgrounds living in the Crawley area.

LUTO Digital Memory Wall

Personalised content that sparks recall 

Voices of My Past

Reframing auditory hallucinations 

TIDE Young Onset Carer Peer Support 

Nantwen Ensemble – “Euterpe’s Song”

Music Composition Project for an with people with dementia

Scottish Chamber Orchestra “Reconnect”

Music engagement in NHS

FEATURED

Past PROJECTS

“We have been able to reframe and disrupt the way people think about dementia. By bringing people living with dementia and service providers TOGETHER”

Andy Hyde, from 'Go Upstream' talks about the ambition for the project and how it helped the public and service providers better understand the needs of people living with dementia in accessing public transport.

Drawing from experience

This project was led by Andy Hyde from Go Upstream, an organisation already funded by the Life Changes Trust and the European Foundations’ Initiative on Dementia.

This new idea was that students from the University of Dundee Masters’ programme in Comics and Graphic Novels would produce artwork to disseminate information gathered with the help of people with dementia.

They produced this novel, Stories of Travelling with Dementia

Reframing dementia

Reframing Dementia was a collaborative audiovisual project between documentary photographer, Keith Lloyd Davenport, and composer, Shona Mackay.

The first stages of the project involved a weekly camera club, where Keith provided guidance on basic camera techniques, encouraging participants to explore photography as a means of documenting their day-to-day lives in whichever way they see fit.

Shona created a corresponding sonic element which including sound recordings made from conversations with participants, focusing on the personal narrative therein.

There were early benefits from taking this camera/conversation club approach, including socialisation, companionship and engagement.

“the idea was to give participants living with dementia a camera, so they could document their ‘everyday lives’. Telling their stories through photographs and highlighting their experiences. ”

Keith Lloyd Davenport, a documentary photographer, describes the first stages of the project, which involved a weekly camera club. Keith provided guidance on basic camera techniques, encouraging participants to explore photography.

ApplyING for a 2025 Award

The 2025 Dementia Disruption Awards will open for applications on 2nd June (2025). There is a dedicated application page available for you to find out more information and apply for an award.

You can also check out questions we are often asked about the awards in the FAQs below. These will help you get a better idea what the trustees look for in applications.

Disruption Awards FAQs

  • The Trust is looking for anything that will disrupt the ideas that people have about people affected by dementia, including their carers and people who work with them. 

  • If you look at the website, you will see that previous awards have been given to organisations, individuals, and charities.  Awards are not given for research. You will have to provide some basic information on the application form.

  • Yes

  • What are Disruption Awards?

  • You will only know if your idea is disruptive after looking round to see if anyone else is doing the same thing. Be ambitious and look at projects in other places.

    We encourage you to consider creative and impactful projects. We are always looking for ideas that can disrupt or diversify thinking, engage the public imagination and attract funders so that we can give out more funds to individuals and groups in future awards.

  • If your existing project is very innovative and you want to do something that goes beyond that level, the Trustees will certainly be interested.

  • If you look at the previous projects, you will see that some were funded to completion and others were given initial funding.

  • Previous projects have been awarded to individuals. If you are applying as a charity, you will need to be registered. If the application is from a partnership the Trustees will require details of the lead partner and may ask to see a partnership agreement. The Trustees require individuals to provide references in support of the application.

  • You cannot apply for pure research, but Trustees will be very interested in new ideas that haven’t been tried before which help us discover new things about Dementia.

  • If you are applying as a charity, you will need to be registered.

  • No.

  • Yes, you can!

  • Only one application per organisation is allowed for each funding tranche. 

  • All applications must be submitted via the form (.docx) on our website.

  • Please stay as close to the word count as you can.  However, you will not be excluded if you go over by a small number of words (as a guide this could be anything up to 10% of the word count).

  • You may do this if your updated or new application is received by the deadline.

  • Please contact Advisor@dementiatrust.org to discuss what may have changed from your previous thinking, project or idea.

  • Yes, but consider whether your project for this tranche is sufficiently different to your previous project.

Can’t find an answer to your question?