Cohorts and data collection

The MRC National Survey of Health and Development—a study of people born in a single week in 1946—continues to collect health and life data from its participants, while also managing other long-running population cohorts in London. This matters because ageing and dementia unfold over decades, and no single snapshot can reveal how early-life factors shape later health. Without sustained data collection and secure sharing, researchers cannot track the real-world trajectories of ageing across different populations and ethnic groups. The cohorts include a Camden-based group of older people and a tri-ethnic London cohort, providing diversity often missing in ageing research. If this work succeeds, it will create a trusted, accessible infrastructure for scientists worldwide to test hypotheses about dementia risk, healthy ageing, and social determinants of health. The impact is largely invisible to the public: better data governance, standardised measurement, and secure data sharing systems that underpin reliable medical evidence. This is fundamental science—building the long-term observational foundation that clinical trials and policy decisions depend on, even if no immediate treatment emerges from the data itself.