The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research. In 2011/12 the MRC spent £19.8 million on dementia research. Information on spend and activities for 2012/13 is not currently available. During 2012/13 the MRC has increased its activity in this area of research in response to the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia. Activities that have been initiated include: (i) £9.6 million is being provided by the MRC for a pilot study involving 8,000 volunteers as the first phase of a brain imaging programme that will ultimately scan the brains of 100,000 UK Biobank participants. In support of this, MRC and DH recently announced a £20 million investment to fully genotype the UK Biobank cohort, with a specific focus on determining the genetic profile of known risk factors that contribute to the development of the dementias. (ii) The provision of £3 million to promote the participation of UK groups in two major international funding initiatives focussed on dementia research—the Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration and Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND) initiatives. (iii) A 50% increase in funding for neuroscience research including dementia in the world-leading MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which in summer 2012 received an expanded budget of £49 million over the next five years. (iv) MRC provides approximately £1 million per annum as core support to four Banks and co-ordination activity within the UK network of 10 brain banks. This funding was recently renewed. During 2012 an additional £0.5 million was provided to improve the process for donation of brain tissue by meeting the costs of collecting brain tissue through the NHS, so smoothing the pathway to donation. In conjunction with publicity regarding donation, this has led to an increase of 18% in the number of brains collected by the Network. (v) An investment of £4.5 million in three new therapeutic programmes seeking to evaluate the ‘repurposing' of existing drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Spend on these activities and other initiatives on dementia research during 2012-13 will be available later this year. A list of research activities supported by the MRC in 2011/12 will be placed in the Libraries of the House.