# Dementia Trust launches new impact accelerator programme and awards first £45,000

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/07/03/dementia-trust-launches-new-impact-accelerator-programme-and-awards-first-45000/
- Published: 2026-07-03T16:58:59+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The Dementia Trust, a Scotland-based charity with almost four decades of experience
supporting people affected by dementia, has named the first recipient of its new
Impact Accelerator programme. K.i.M, a sensory support tool for people living with
dementia and their carers, has been awarded £45,000 to help move the project from
prototype to a deployable product.**

The **Impact Accelerator Awards**, delivered with support from Dementia Research
UK, are designed to help science-backed and academic projects that have already 
built a solid evidence base take the next step towards real-world use. This could
take the form of scaling up, embedding within services, or shaping policy and practice.
K.i.M is the scheme’s first funded project.

**Dylan Harper**, chair of The Dementia Trust, said the award recognises projects
that are ready to move beyond research, and that K.i.M has shown clear evidence 
of the difference the platform can make.

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## Understanding sensory and cognitive changes that accompany dementia

K.i.M focuses on helping people understand the sensory and cognitive changes that
can accompany dementia, both around diagnosis and afterwards, so that individuals,
carers and families can better recognise what is happening and respond in ways that
support independence for longer. Founder **Kimberley Littlemore**, herself a carer,
said the funding would allow the team to build out the tool fully, having already
learned a great deal from testing an initial prototype.

A short film linked to the announcement, “KiM the journey so far” from PocketMedicFilms,
traces the project’s development. It features people with dementia and their carers
describing sensory experiences that go well beyond memory loss, including altered
perception, visual disturbances and difficulty filtering background noise or concentrating
amid competing stimuli.

## WATCH: KiM the journey so far

The film includes footage from Swansea’s dementia hub, where staff note that many
visitors arrive with very limited understanding of dementia and often don’t know
where to turn next. It also shows the team field-testing an early version of the
assessment tool with families, gathering feedback on usability, such as making key
controls more prominent, to feed into future development.

The next phase of work will concentrate on turning the prototype into a practical,
accessible product ready for wider use.

 * **[Read Funding Digest online](https://fundraising.co.uk/1995/11/05/read-funding-digest-online/)**(
   5 November 1995)
 * **[Grants-finding service publishes details on the Web](https://fundraising.co.uk/1996/10/07/grantsfinding-service-publishes-details-web/)**(
   7 October 1996)
 * **[New US directory for online grant-seekers](https://fundraising.co.uk/1996/11/14/new-us-directory-online-grantseekers/)**(
   14 November 1996)