It’s been an exciting year here at the Daphne Jackson Trust. From expanding our hosts and funding partners to getting a new brand and website, we are continuing our valuable work of bringing people back to research after a career break.
We celebrated our 500th Daphne Jackson Fellowship, bringing us to 500 fellows in five decades. There are currently 64 active fellows across the UK, researching everything from the cardiovascular system to the intersection of technology and dance. Many of our fellows also accepted exciting follow-on positions, including lectureships and industry roles, as well as fellowships like the Wellcome Trust Early Career Award.
In 2024, we launched the new Research Technical Professional Fellowships for technicians looking to return to the research workforce, and we’re working with a growing number of host and funding partners. 54 different host and funding organisations currently support at least one Daphne Jackson Fellow, and 10 new organisations agreed to help us bring more people back to research this year.
Through the year our fellows attended six different training courses, as well as the biennial Daphne Jackson Conference. At the conference, 161 delegates were immersed in the new Daphne Jackson brand for two days of networking, learning about the successes of our former fellows, and exploring our fellows’ research at “Your research, your way.”
We have continued to be a voice for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion this year. Daphne Jackson staff represented the needs of returners at a range of events and conferences, and we were shortlisted for the Charity Times Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion award. We also welcomed our new patron, science communicator and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Surrey Jim Al-Khailili.
Thank you for all your support this year; we can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store!
