THE Queen will present representatives from the University of Bradford with an award recognising the world leading work done there to improve the lives of people with dementia.

The university has been awarded a coveted Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, the highest form of national recognition a university can get. The prize will be presented by The Queen, with The Duke of Edinburgh, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in February.

Research by the university's Dementia Studies department has focused on helping people live well with dementia and improving the quality of care provided for people with the condition, and Bradford is considered a world leader in the field.

The announcement was made by the Royal Anniversary Trust at an event in St James’s Palace attended by Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor and Professor Murna Downs, Chair in Dementia Studies at the university.

Bradford is one of only 21 institutions in this round to receive the accolade, which honours world-class excellence and achievement. It was chosen for its leadership in developing person-centred dementia care, and for influencing policy and practice in the UK and internationally.

Bradford’s work in dementia care has had a major impact, reaching a wide range of care settings in the UK and beyond, including working with care providers and national bodies on new approaches to developing a highly skilled workforce, and measuring the quality of care.

The University has trained over 10,000 care staff across four continents, and enabled adoption of person-centred approaches in policy and practice. Its Dementia Care Mapping tool is currently being evaluated in a multi-site, £2.4m project funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

The Prize consists of a prize medal naming the institution, a prize certificate signed by The Queen and the entitlement to use the prize scheme logo for four years.

Professor Brian Cantor, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “The university has an established record in carrying out truly great research that significantly impacts on the world. This is the first Queen’s Anniversary Prize that we have been awarded, and it demonstrates the difference that the University of Bradford is making in influencing policy and care for the most vulnerable people in our society, in the UK and across the world.

“One of the university’s key academic themes is advanced healthcare, and dementia studies is a key element of this. An ageing society, with increasing long-term conditions such as dementia, poses considerable global challenges, creating increasing demand on services with fewer resources to deliver them. Bradford’s leadership in delivering solutions in the field of dementia care, both in improving lives and quality of care, puts real meaning into the fact that 96 per cent of our research is ranked as world leading or internationally recognised.”