A year of growth, collaboration and excellence

Dear WASP community,

Thank you for a great 2025! This was a year of growth, collaboration, and continued excellence in research.

WASP celebrated several milestones this year – including our 10-year anniversary and our 200th PhD defense. Read about our progress in the Impact Report. We continue to mature and come into our own as Sweden’s largest individual research program.

In terms of international collaboration, we joined national academic AI centers in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway to create the Nordic AI Partnership. This fall we joined our partners for the first Nordic AI Meet in Norrköping, and at the first-ever EurIPS. We also announced a new research agreement focusing on AI and data science with Imperial College London.

Here in Sweden, we showcased our deep industry ties with our fully booked Academia and Industry Days conference. WARA Medicine launched, joining WASP’s other research arenas. Members of our community participated in demo days and open labs, cluster workshops, local and regional conferences, and more. The Lighthouse initiative is raising the profile of WASP across Sweden, with our partner universities creating physical spaces to gather and hold local events.

Above all, WASP continues to excel in research. WASP members continue to receive competitive grants and other awards, earn accolades for top papers, and publish in high-impact journals. WASP-affiliated researchers contributed 27 papers to this year’s NeurIPS, for example, and nearly 10% of the continuing and starting funds announced by the Swedish Research Council this year were awarded to WASP researchers. Together, we are setting the standard for world-class research.

Thank you to researchers who have taken the time to review, assess, and organize the many applications and events over the course of the year. Your service to the community is appreciated.

This has been an exciting and productive first year for me as Program Director. I’m looking forward to shepherding WASP to continued growth and sustained excellence in 2026.

Happy holidays,
Amy Loutfi