As we come to the end of a busy year, we wanted to take a moment to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s been part of the White Rose community over the last 12 months. This has been a year powered by people – by your ideas, your time, your energy, and your willingness to get involved.

This year alone, we’ve connected with over 500 people across our partner universities. That level of engagement is something we’re genuinely proud of – not as a statistic, but as a sign of how strong, generous, and curious this community really is.

Three flagship programmes, one shared journey

This year saw a full cycle of our three flagship programmes: Prosper, Crucible, and Equity in Leadership – each supporting people at different stages of their careers, but all rooted in the same goal: helping people grow with confidence and community.

• Prosper supported postdocs as they explored what’s next for them.
• Crucible brought people together across disciplines to build networks, ideas, and collaborations that just wouldn’t happen otherwise.
• Equity in Leadership returned with a new cohort, continuing vital work around inclusive leadership.

What stood out across all three wasn’t just the quality of the programmes, but the openness, generosity, and trust that participants brought into the room.

From conversations to collaboration

One of the real highlights this year was seeing Crucible collaborations move into action, with teams securing White Rose seed funding for new, imaginative projects. From storytelling and food futures to new ways of understanding resilience, it’s been inspiring to watch ideas grow into live work.

It’s a brilliant reminder of what happens when people from different backgrounds and disciplines are given space—and support—to experiment together.

Connecting across the region

This year, we also brought a diverse mix of people together, formed connections, and strengthened partnerships across across Yorkshire and the Humber and beyond:

• The Align HE conference created space for honest conversations about diverse leadership in higher education.
• Our new partnership with the British Academy enabled the launch of a regional cluster supporting early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
• PRISMs Connect continued to build informal but meaningful links between Professional Research Investment & Strategy Managers (PRISMs) through the White Rose coffee chat scheme.

All of this reflects something that runs right through White Rose: connection matters—between people, institutions, roles, and ideas.

Supporting careers at every stage

Career development remained a huge focus for us this year, with support offered right across the research ecosystem:

• The PhD Careers Day brought PhD researchers together with employers to explore real-world possibilities and next steps.
• The Research Professionals Careers Day created a dedicated space for learning, recognition, and shared challenge.
• New work on Empowering Established Researchers ensured support doesn’t stop once people are “established” in their careers.

Looking to 2026

As much as it’s been a year of action and activity, it’s also been a year of listening – and what we’ve learned is already shaping what comes next.

Over the past months, we’ve identified gaps in support across the researcher and professional journey. In response, we’re getting ready to kick off three new projects and resources designed to complement what already exists and reach people who we know need something different. These will focus on:

• Supporting researchers returning from parental leave, by identifying practical ways our institutions can better support people as they transition back into work.
• Developing regional support for emotionally demanding research, exploring how we can better support the wellbeing and resilience of researchers working in challenging fields.
• Demystifying academia for Global Majority early career researchers, through the co-design of a new development programme to help navigate and progress within academic careers.

All three projects will be shaped directly by the people they’re designed to support, and we’re excited to start turning insight into action over the year ahead.

None of what we’ve achieved in 2025 would have been possible without the generosity, openness, and enthusiasm of this community. We hope you get the chance to pause and recharge over the festive period, and we look forward to returning in January to keep building on this work together.