Alpha GPC
Ginkgo biloba
Lecithin
Nootropics
Nootropics are compounds that support how well your brain performs: how sharply you focus, how fast you process and how reliably you remember.
Think of them as better fuel for the thinking itself.
The science behind a sharper mind
In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, professional athletes taking CONKA improved their cognitive performance by 14.86% in six weeks, while the placebo group declined.
CONKA is two daily shots of clinically dosed nootropics and adaptogens, with zero caffeine. This page shows how they work and the trials behind them.
- Cognitive performance vs placebo
- +14.86%
- Of fully tracked athletes improved
- 80%
- Clinical trials
- 25+
- Invested in research
- £500k+
Informed Sport certified- Zero caffeine
Modern life is quietly dismantling your attention
The usual fixes make it worse. Here is what gets in the way of a sharp mind, and why caffeine is not the answer.
AttentionFragmented attention
Notifications, endless screens and back-to-back demands split your focus dozens of times a day.
CaffeineThe caffeine crash
Caffeine buys an hour and charges interest: jitters, an afternoon slump and a worse night's sleep.
SupplementsClaims with nothing under them
Most brain products make big promises with no study behind them and no way for you to check.
What are nootropics and adaptogens?
Both are natural compounds studied for how they support the brain. They do different jobs, which is why CONKA uses both, alongside antioxidants, amino acids and vitamins that protect brain cells and help the actives absorb.
Work on the day
Ashwagandha
Rhodiola rosea
Lemon balm
Adaptogens
Adaptogens are natural plant extracts that help your body adapt to stress, easing an overworked stress response back toward balance instead of forcing it the way a stimulant does.
Think of them as a thermostat for stress: they hold the room at a workable temperature.
Why nature makes them
Plants make these compounds to survive stress of their own: cold, drought, UV light and predators. Rhodiola grows in cold, high mountain regions, and ginkgo is one of the oldest tree species on Earth. Those same defence compounds are what researchers study in people.
Two shots, built around how your day actually runs
Flow and Clear work as one system rather than one dose repeated. Each is built for a different part of the day, with zero caffeine in either.
CONKA Flow
Focus and calm energy for the first half of the day.
Key actives
- AshwagandhaSteadies the stress response
- Rhodiola roseaPushes back on mental fatigue
- Lemon balmCalm without sedation
TurmericProtects brain cells
CONKA Clear
Clarity for the back half of the day, and a proper wind-down.
Key actives
- Alpha GPCSupports focus and recall
- Ginkgo bilobaSupports blood flow to the brain
Acetyl-L-carnitineFuels tired neurons
Vitamin CProtects against oxidative stress
Proven against placebo, not just promised
Our lead trial was run the way medicines are tested: randomised, double-blind and against a placebo. Here is what each trial found, and exactly how it was run.
Harlequins F.C.
Professional rugby players- Randomised
- Double-blind
- Placebo-controlled
- 29 players
- 6 weeks
Change in cognitive performance over six weeks
- Of fully tracked athletes improved
- 80%
- Memory
- +10.0%
- Focus
- +7.6%
The CONKA group also took 60% more physical contact during the trial, and still came out sharper.
How the trial was run
- Players were randomly split into a CONKA group and a placebo group.
- Double-blind means neither the players nor the researchers knew who was taking CONKA and who was taking the placebo until the trial ended.
- The improvement on the core processing-accuracy measure was statistically significant (p = 0.0018), meaning it is very unlikely to be down to chance.
Bristol Bears
Professional rugby players- 15 players
- 13 weeks
+19.3%
Focus
- +7.9% cognition across all tests
- +3.9% processing speed
No placebo group: each player was measured against their own starting scores. Statistically significant across the tests (p < 0.05).
Revolut
Workplace trial- 9 employees
- 18 days
75%
Improved their cognitive scores
- 20 to 25% faster reaction times by the end
A small real-world trial with no placebo group. It is an early signal that the effect carries from elite sport into an ordinary working day.
In progress
University of Exeter
Athletes and defence personnel- Randomised crossover
- Double-blind
- Placebo-controlled
- 60+ participants
- 8 weeks
Measuring attention, processing speed and short-term memory three times a week through the CONKA app. The trial is in write-up, and we will share the results once they are peer-reviewed and published.
Our research partners
Want the full stories? Read the athlete case studies
The scientists behind CONKA
CONKA is formulated and tested with scientists who study the brain, nutrition and human performance for a living.
Prof Karen Hind
Chief Research Officer
Durham University
Prof Paul Chazot
Head of Nutritional Research
Durham University
Prof Sam Vine
Head of High Performance, leads our Exeter human trial
University of Exeter
Dr Callum O'Malley
Runs our Exeter human trial
University of Exeter
Dr Shankar Katekhaye
Formulation scientist, developer of our alcohol-free extraction
Dr Daniel Glassbrook
Early formulation and safety research
Durham University
Dr Barbara Halmai
Research assistant
University of Exeter
Dr Tom Sawyer
Former CFO of Cognetivity, makers of an AI cognitive assessment for early dementia screening
Cognetivity Neurosciences
We don't stop at the trials
The CONKA app puts a two-minute FDA-cleared cognitive test in your pocket, derived from Cambridge research and used in NHS memory clinics. Every test adds to our real-world research on how sleep, stress, caffeine and CONKA affect the brain, and shows you your own score week by week.
- Free, and takes two minutes
- Reads processing speed from natural images, so it cannot be gamed
- Tracks your score week over week, on CONKA and off it
7,593 tests across 712 people over 30 months of real app data.
The evidence is in. Now test it on yourself.
Take Flow in the morning and Clear in the afternoon, then track your own scores in the CONKA app.
- Informed Sport certified
- Zero caffeine
- 100-day money-back guarantee
Reviewed