Formed in 1997, the White Rose University Consortium represents a unique model of collaboration between UK universities. A partnership between Yorkshire’s research-intensive universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York, White Rose’s remit is to encourage and facilitate creativity and innovation, assisting the three institutions to secure funding and resources to pursue research, teaching and enterprise activities.

It has proved to be an enormously successful model. Cited as a unique example of the effectiveness of collaboration in the government’s 2003 white paper, The Future of Higher Education, White Rose has, to date, secured some £55m of funding. We work closely with the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward to underpin economic development through research excellence and drive key initiatives to benefit the universities and encourage inward investment.

Our reputation is for effective delivery of initiatives of regional and national importance. Examples include:

• The National Science Learning Centre, the flagship of the £51m initiative from government and the Wellcome Trust initiative to reinvigorate science teaching throughout England.
• The White Rose Research Triangle, a major initiative to significantly increase inward investment, focusing on developing long-term relationships with both UK-based and international companies.
• The Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Centre of Industrial Collaboration (BITE CIC), combining technological and clinical expertise with project management and commercial know-how, assisting industrial developments of the next generation of cutting-edge biomaterials and tissue engineering products.

But our ambition extends beyond national projects. In partnership with Yorkshire Forward, White Rose is bidding to host the world’s largest and most powerful neutron-scattering facility – the £1bn European Spallation Source (ESS).

Europe has led the world in this crucial technology for more than 30 years, but facilities being built in Japan and the US will soon be operational, prompting the debate in Europe for its own ‘next generation’ neutron source.

For the region in which it is based, a large facility like the ESS will have an enormous economic impact and in the long term would be expected to develop into a major science and innovation hub, with benefits for the UK as a whole. As well as creating jobs and boosting the hospitality and tourism sectors, hi-tech companies would be attracted to the region as users of, and suppliers to, the facility.

We’ve undertaken the challenge of promoting the benefits of hosting the ESS in the UK with determination. A report highlighting the socio-economic benefits of hosting such a facility was commissioned and a delegation from Yorkshire met with science minister Lord Sainsbury, prompting a formal review of the UK’s need for, and access to, neutron facilities. The publication of the Neutron Review is imminent.

Confirming its commitment to hosting a world-class science facility in the region, Yorkshire Forward has acquired a site near Selby in North Yorkshire, which meets all the stringent criteria of hosting the ESS, and outline planning permission to build a large-scale science facility has been granted.

Our involvement in the European arena sees us hosting the next meeting of the European Spallation Source Initiative (ESS-I), the consortium working to realise the ESS, comprising leading European research facilities, the ESSI secretariat, renowned scientists and representatives of the other bidding sites: Germany, Hungary and Sweden.

 The chance to host a large facility like ESS provides an unrivalled opportunity to drive forward Yorkshire’s economic prosperity. White Rose and Yorkshire Forward have been working hard to prepare the strongest possible case, so that should the UK decide to invest in a next-generation neutron source, and when the time comes to decide a location, Yorkshire will be the natural choice.