Research into the link between football and dementia is to be intensified by a £1m study that tests former players for early signs of the disease.

The Screening Cognitive Outcomes after Repetitive Head Impact Exposure in Sport (Scores) project, run by the University of East Anglia (UEA), aims to screen former footballers’ brain health for evidence of dementia that may appear long before any other symptoms, such as memory problems, become apparent. It will begin in the eastern region but will be rolled out nationally later this year and retired footballers, whether men or women, aged over 50 are being sought to take part.

Concerns about the risk of dementia in footballers, and particularly those who have headed the ball frequently, have risen significantly in recent years. Last year a study by the University of Glasgow, funded by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association, found that former professionals had an approximately three-and-a-half-times higher rate of neurodegenerative disease than expected. Included in that statistic is a fivefold increase in risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The lead researcher, Dr Michael Grey, from UEA’s school of health sciences, said: “We now know that there is a much higher risk of dementia in former professional footballers and we think this is related to repetitive heading of the ball. We do not know if this extends to the amateur level.

“So there will be many footballers out there who are understandably very worried about their futures. We will be working with former professional players to investigate and track their brain health over time. We hope to follow these footballers for the rest of their lives.”

Iwan Roberts, the former Norwich centre-forward, is among those to have backed the project but the research team are seeking more former players to participate. “I played football for 20 years professionally, and headed many balls over that period. I want to see whether there is anything I should be concerned about in the foreseeable future,” Roberts said.

Among the retired footballers already known to have died as a result of repeated head trauma is Jeff Astle, the former West Brom and England forward. Astle’s death in 2002 at the age of 59, from an “industrial disease” that a coroner found was partly caused by heading heavy footballs, sounded alarm bells about the potential extent of the problem. In 2015 his family launched a foundation aimed at raising awareness surrounding brain injury in all forms of sport, as well as offering support to those affected.

The UEA aims to raise £1m for the study and hopes 10% of that figure will be crowdfunded. The FA has already announced the creation of a specialist research taskforce to assimilate the information currently available and the university’s groundbreaking project will hope to add significantly to that knowledge base.