Institutional, clinical, product.

Host

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  Host institution

  University for the Creative Arts

  MCDC is a research programme at UCA. The programme is led from within UCA and treated here as a standalone research site connected to — not a sub-site of — the university.

Funders

• Funder — ACT development

  UKRI Zinc Catalyst (Healthy Ageing)

  £60,000 award (2023–2024) via the UKRI Zinc Catalyst Healthy Ageing strand, to Whalley and Brill at UCA, for the development and implementation of the Anticipatory Care Tool.

• Funder — COGS app

  Innovate UK — Healthy Ageing Programme

  Innovate UK Healthy Ageing Programme funding underpinned the COGS digital Cognitive Stimulation Therapy app co-developed with Memory Matters (completed 2023).

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  Funder — MedTracks study

  NHS Highland SBRI

  Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding underpins the ongoing MedTracks music-prompted medication-adherence 30-day study with NHS Highland (2025–).

Clinical and co-design

• Pilot site; long-running STA adopter · Wrexham, North Wales

  Pendine Park

  70-resident specialist dementia capacity. Hosted the 2019 Memory Tracks pilot (Cunningham et al.) and has since embedded Song-Task Association in daily practice continuously from 2019 to the present — a six-year stretch of sustained research-derived practice change. Will host the planned MCDC framework pilot.

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  Clinical research partner — MedTracks · Scotland

  NHS Highland

  30-day SBRI-funded study of the MedTracks music-prompted medication-adherence app (2025, ongoing). An associated paper from the same study is currently under review.

• Co-design partner; CST specialists · Plymouth

  Memory Matters

  Plymouth-based dementia-support charity and Cognitive Stimulation Therapy specialists. Co-design workshops and interviews with their staff and clients shaped both the ACT observational question set and the COGS digital-CST app (completed 2023). CEO: Kate Smith.

• Co-design partner; ACT trial site · Edinburgh

  Lifecare

  Edinburgh dementia-club partner. Hosted a 24-week ACT trial in 2023 (n = 16) during which the algorithm flagged concerning patterns in two participants, triggering GP referrals. Also contributed to the ACT co-design workshops.

Product collaborators

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  Product collaborator — Component 2 of MCDC

  Memory Tracks Ltd

  Develops the Memory Tracks app — the daily-care instrument at the heart of MCDC's passive-monitoring component — and its consumer-facing sibling product MedTracks (music-powered medication-adherence reminders, subject of ongoing NHS Highland research). A Heads of Agreement between UCA and Memory Tracks Ltd was signed in March 2026 by Gordon Anderson (Director, Memory Tracks Ltd), formalising the sustained research partnership in place since 2019. The 2019 Pendine Park pilot paper was co-authored across both teams, and Stuart Cunningham appears as a named author on the MCDC white paper.

Integrations

• ACT-API integration target — post-pilot priority

  Person Centred Software (PCS)

  The MCDC white paper names Person Centred Software (the most widely used care-management platform in Welsh care homes) as the priority ACT-API integration target post-pilot. ACT-API entered beta in April 2026; named partner integrations will be confirmed as they sign.

Policy alignment

• Policy alignment

  Welsh Government

  The planned Pendine Park pilot aligns with the Welsh Government's Dementia Strategy for Wales 2026–2036 (draft for consultation), and with the principles of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.