The NHS is inviting thousands of people with severe mental illness to take part in GlobalMinds, a three-year study designed to build the most detailed dataset yet on conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis and major depression and to help develop more personalised treatments.
Scope and recruitment
About 49,000 eligible adults in England and Wales are being invited to join. Nearly 2,000 people have already enrolled, and an additional dementia cohort of 1,000 people is being recruited through hospitals, care homes and a pilot with Cera Care. NHS England’s DigiTrials service is identifying and inviting suitable patients at participating trusts and offering extra support for people who are more severely unwell or who face barriers using digital tools.
What participation involves
Volunteers aged 18 or over who live in an area covered by a participating NHS trust and have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, major depression or a related condition can sign up at globalminds.org. After a short eligibility check and online questionnaire, participants provide a blood or saliva sample (at-home kits or arranged visits are available), complete online measures, and consent to researchers linking these data with their NHS medical records.
The study combines genetic, clinical and personal information to investigate factors that influence risk, illness severity and treatment response. People can choose which parts of the study to take part in, receive a thank-you voucher of up to £50, and may withdraw at any time without giving a reason. A Patient Public Involvement and Engagement group helps shape the study and its materials, and no data are shared with researchers without the participant’s knowledge and permission.
Leadership, funding and partners
GlobalMinds is led by Akrivia Health Ltd in partnership with Cardiff University and will initially run in England and Wales before expanding internationally. The programme is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and funded by the Wellcome Trust and Johnson & Johnson. Akrivia Health, founded in 2019 as an Oxford and NHS spin-out, curates electronic mental health records into structured data for research and works closely with clinical academics and people with lived experience.
Operational partners include Kaizen Bioservices for sampling logistics, Global Initiative Ltd for the website and Trial Deck clinical trial management platform, and Claremont Communications for patient-facing materials. NIHR Research Delivery Networks support recruitment, especially for the dementia cohort.
Voices on the programme
Dr Adrian James, NHS England’s National Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity, says the study could transform understanding of severe mental illness and help usher in more personalised treatments. Professor James Walters, GlobalMinds’ Chief Investigator at Cardiff University, describes it as an unprecedented opportunity to link genetic and routine clinical data to improve diagnosis and targeting of treatments. Brian Dow, Deputy Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness, welcomed the partnership approach that keeps lived experience central, and patient adviser Akeela Mohammed highlighted efforts to design the research to include vulnerable and underrepresented communities.
Further information and contact
Sign up and full details: https://globalminds.org/
Dementia cohort information: https://dementia.globalminds.org/
Media and interview requests: Tanisha Kamat, [email protected], 07407 687936.
