image: The ACCESS-AD Project
Credit: ACCESS-AD
Amsterdam, 13 January 2026. Today, the ACCESS-AD consortium is announcing the launch of a transformative European initiative that will accelerate the implementation of scientific innovations for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) management in real-world health systems. The international consortium - bringing together academic institutions, industry partners, SMEs and patient organisations - is co-led by Amsterdam UMC, Siemens Healthineers, King’s College London and Gates Ventures, with funding from the European Commission’s Innovative Health Initiative for a five-year period.
The project begins at a pivotal moment for AD care in Europe. In 2025, two new disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), lecanemab and donanemab, received regulatory approval, offering a first opportunity to slow the progression of AD. However, additional accessible and scalable treatment options are also needed, since Member States are confronted with rapidly escalating diagnostic bottlenecks, long waiting times and a growing shortage of specialised healthcare professionals. AD prevalence is rising sharply and is expected to exceed 19 million by 2050 in Europe alone. Health systems are already struggling to deliver timely diagnostic testing, brain imaging and structured clinical follow-up, raising the risk of delayed treatment and poorer outcomes.
ACCESS-AD aims to address these challenges directly, accelerating innovation and strengthening equitable access to timely and effective care. “Our vision is simple but ambitious: to make personalised care a reality for every patient with AD, regardless of where they live,” said Professor Frederik Barkhof from Amsterdam UMC and Clinical Lead of ACCESS-AD. “ACCESS-AD brings together the clinical, scientific and societal stakeholders needed to turn innovation into everyday practice across Europe.”
A Europe-wide, integrated framework for diagnosis, treatment and monitoring
ACCESS-AD is pioneering a coordinated, multimodal clinical framework that unites brain imaging, blood-based biomarkers, digital monitoring tools, AI-driven decision support, and real-world evidence into a seamless patient pathway. Its design aims to accelerate diagnostic confirmation, support the safe administration of DMTs and novel interventions, and broaden access to advanced innovations beyond specialist centres, including primary care and underserved regions.
A central focus of the project is the combination of advanced but accessible neuroimaging with expanded use of fluid and digital biomarkers. This will support early and accurate patient identification, enabling timely diagnosis and entry into personalised treatment pathways that may include DMTs, targeted lifestyle interventions and nutritional strategies. ACCESS-AD also aims to widen access to tools that historically have been available only in centres of excellence, such as accelerated MRI protocols, quantitative amyloid PET and automated safety monitoring.
ACCESS-AD introduces a coordinated innovation pathway structured across four key clinical stages:
- DETECT: integration of blood-based biomarkers and digital tools with accelerated MRI and quantitative PET for scalable diagnostic confirmation
- STRATIFY: patient-centred workflows informed by AI-based progression and treatment-response models, advancing precision medicine in AD
- TREAT: real-world data collection on the usability, safety and implementation of DMTs and lifestyle interventions across multiple European settings
- MONITOR: AI and digital tools for continuous monitoring of disease progression, supported by brain imaging protocols optimised for DMT safety monitoring
“ACCESS-AD brings together expertise from across Europe to address the urgent need for more effective and personalised Alzheimer’s care,” said Andreas Schneck, head of Magnetic Resonance at Siemens Healthineers, Industry Lead of ACCESS-AD. “By integrating laboratory diagnostics, advanced imaging, and AI-driven digital tools, this coordinated approach aims to strengthen the entire care pathway – enabling timely diagnosis, precision treatment, and equitable access to innovations across diverse care settings.”
AI-driven prediction to guide safety and treatment decisions
The ACCESS-AD framework is being built around AI-driven prediction models capable of forecasting treatment response, identifying patients at risk of adverse events, and guiding personalised treatment planning. These models will draw upon harmonised MRI and PET data, blood biomarkers and digital measures from wearables and smartphones. A dementia dashboard will synthesise the multimodal data into clear, actionable insights for clinicians in both specialist and community-based settings.
“Sharing and integrating diverse data sources is essential to build robust AI models that can identify the right patients, for the right treatment, at the right time,” said Niranjan Bose, Industry Co-Lead from Gates Ventures. “ACCESS-AD will demonstrate how responsible data ecosystems can accelerate both scientific discovery and clinical impact.”
Real-world evidence to strengthen European system preparedness
A cornerstone of ACCESS-AD is its pan-European AD registry, which will leverage the established InRAD platform. This infrastructure will collect real-world data from more than 500 patients across a variety of health systems, capturing safety, clinical evolution and treatment outcomes under routine clinical conditions. The registry will also support a pilot study that tests the feasibility of combining DMTs with a multicomponent lifestyle intervention and advanced nutritional supplements from Nestlé, as well as a clinical prediction study of the once-daily oral therapy, blarcamesine.
Recognising the need for equitable and scalable implementation, ACCESS-AD integrates health-economic modelling, regulatory development, ethical reflection and sustainability assessments. European Patient Advisory Boards will ensure that the needs and values of patients and carers are embedded throughout the project. ACCESS-AD builds on other IHI initiatives including PROMINENT, PREDICTOM, AD-RIDDLE and EPND, ensuring that advances in early detection, biomarker innovation and data infrastructure translate into improved diagnosis, treatment and care.
“ACCESS-AD is a holistic effort across private and public sectors,” noted Professor Dag Aarsland from KCL, clinical co-Lead of the project. “By combining technological innovation with economic, ethical, regulatory and patient perspectives, we aim to chart a sustainable, scalable and equitable pathway for the implementation of new AD diagnostics and treatments, including multidomain lifestyle interventions and new disease-modifying therapies.”
About ACCESS-AD
ACCESS-AD receives funding under the auspices of the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU). The ACCESS-AD programme has an initial budget of over €37 million, comprising ca. €20 million from the EU and ca. €17 million from the industry partners. The budget is distributed across the following 30 partners:
- Stichting Amsterdam UMC
- Siemens Healthineers AG
- King’s College London
- Gates Ventures LLC
- Alzheimer Europe
- Anavex Germany GmbH
- Amsterdam UMC Research BV
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen EV
- Eisai Limited
- Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis
- Fakultni Nemocnice v Motole
- Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung EG
- Fundacio de Recerca Clinic Barcelona – Institut d’Investigacions biomediques August pi Sunyer
- Helse Stavanger HF
- Hospital Clinic de Barcelona
- InRAD - Stichting International Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias
- Karolinska Institutet
- Klinikum der Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München
- Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München
- Muhdo Health Ltd
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
- Neotiv GmbH
- Neurimmune SubOne AG
- Pohjois-Savon Hyvinvointialue
- Positrigo AG
- Region Stockholm
- Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Products GmbH
- Siemens Healthcare Limited
- Siemens Healthcare Private Ltd
- Siemens Healthcare SL
- Siemens Healthineers International AG
- Societé de Produits Nestlé SA
- Universidad de Navarra
- Universitätsklinikum Erlangen
- University College London
- University of Leicester
To learn more about ACCESS-AD, visit the project website: www.access-ad.org
For additional information, please contact info@access-ad.org
About the Innovative Health Initiative
The Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) aims to translate health research and innovation into real benefits for patients and society, and ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary, sustainable, patient-centric health research. Health research and care increasingly involve diverse sectors. By supporting projects that bring these sectors together, IHI will pave the way for a more integrated approach to health care, covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and disease management. IHI is a partnership between the European Union and European industry associations representing the pharmaceutical, medical technology, biotechnology, digital health, and vaccine industries, namely COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio, and MedTech Europe. IHI’s total budget for the period 2021-2027 is €2.4 billion. Half of this comes from Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme. The IHI industry partners have committed €1 billion to IHI, and a further €200 million can be committed by other organisations that decide to become Contributing Partners.
Acknowledgement
This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No 101253010. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA, Europa Bío, MedTech Europe, and Vaccines Europe, and Anavex, Muhdo and Neurimmune.
Disclaimer
ACCESS-AD is funded by the European Union, the private members, and those contributing partners of the IHI JU. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the aforementioned parties. None of the aforementioned parties can be held responsible for them.