About us

NGN was established with a clear ambition: to disseminate findings from dementia research more quickly to memory clinics, so that new knowledge could reach professionals and contribute to better care. From the very beginning, however, memory-clinic professionals expressed another important need: to learn from each other. 

Connecting research, knowledge and memory-clinic practice

Memory-clinic professionals wanted to exchange practical knowledge and experiences, discuss shared challenges and learn how other memory clinics organise and improve care. This shaped NGN into the network it is today: a place where research knowledge, professional and practice-based knowledge, and experiential knowledge come together. 

Knowledge flows in more than one direction. NGN is not simply a channel for transferring research findings into practice. Knowledge also emerges from everyday care. Professionals share what works in their own memory clinics, what they struggle with and what they have learned. The experiences and perspectives of people with dementia and their families also provide essential knowledge about what matters in care.

These different forms of knowledge can inform each other:

• Research → Practice: bringing new evidence, insights and innovations into memory-clinic care.
• Practice ↔ Practice: sharing experiences, solutions and lessons across memory clinics.
• Practice → Research: bringing questions, experiences and needs from everyday care back into research and knowledge development.

Together, these connections help create knowledge that is not only scientifically relevant, but also useful, feasible and meaningful in practice.

The role of Vilans

NGN is a knowledge platform of Vilans, the Dutch centre of expertise for long-term care. Vilans develops and supports knowledge platforms for different areas of care and professional communities. These platforms bring together knowledge from research, practice and experience, make it accessible for everyday practice, and create opportunities for professionals to learn from one another. NGN specifically connects professionals and knowledge within memory-clinic practice.

Vilans is involved in several national research programmes and consortia in the field of dementia. Our role often lies at the intersection of research, knowledge and implementation: helping to ensure that new knowledge and innovations can ultimately make a difference in everyday care. This means thinking about implementation. Not only after research has been completed, but throughout the process. Together with researchers, professionals, people with dementia and their families, we explore questions such as: 

• Who will use this knowledge? 
• What is needed to make it work in practice? 
• What can we learn from its use? 
• And how can experiences from practice inform further research and development?

NGN provides an important connection between these research programmes and memory-clinic practice. It offers a place to share new knowledge and practical resources, learn from professionals’ experiences, and bring questions and insights from everyday practice back into research.

From research to practice

Through NGN, Vilans and its partners can:

• share findings, knowledge and tools from dementia research with memory-clinic professionals;
• involve professionals in the development, testing and implementation of innovations;
• support learning and exchange between memory clinics;
• share professional, practice-based and experiential knowledge;
• identify questions and needs from everyday practice and connect them back to research.

In this way, dissemination becomes the starting point for exchange, learning and implementation — rather than the end of the research process.

Research programmes and collaborations

Vilans works with researchers, professionals and other partners in several dementia research programmes. Through these collaborations, we explore how new knowledge can be developed with implementation and use in practice in mind.

Learning from practice

Research is only one source of knowledge within NGN. Memory-clinic professionals bring valuable expertise from everyday care. By sharing experiences, examples and challenges, they can learn from one another and contribute to the further development of knowledge and tools.

NGN therefore combines dissemination with interaction: bringing knowledge into practice, learning what happens when it is used, and creating opportunities for professionals to exchange and learn together.

From knowledge to impact

Better dementia care requires more than developing new knowledge. It requires connecting research, practice and people. Through NGN, we aim to shorten the distance between what we know and what happens in everyday memory-clinic care. While ensuring that knowledge and experiences from practice can find their way back into research.