Developing new prioritization strategies and implementing innovative health technologies is paramount to advancing capabilities for prevention, risk reduction, early diagnosis, therapies and care for people with dementia. Moreover, epidemiological studies are crucial to provide adequate data that will ultimately reflect the readiness of a country and its national health system in caring for people with dementia. The implementation of dementia research plans needs to be accompanied by the allocation of appropriate funding and infrastructure to enable scientific breakthroughs and innovative interventions, and to have their impact effectively translated into benefit to society. To stimulate dementia research overall, the Global dementia action plan set a target for doubling dementia-related research output between 2017 and 2025.