Progress doesn’t always move in straight lines. Sometimes it grows quietly, deep beneath the surface, until one day it changes the whole field. At VRF, we’ve learned to value that kind of slow, durable growth — the kind that builds foundations others can stand on.

That’s why this year, we’re stepping back from the Incyte Ingenuity Awards to focus on the long game we’re uniquely built to play.

We deliberately waited until after the October 31 submission deadline to announce this decision. We wanted other organizations to make their choices independently, without our announcement influencing their participation. The Incyte Ingenuity Awards deserve a fair and unencumbered submission cycle.

As a technology-driven research organization, VRF is committed to developing treatments, advancing evidence, and building digital infrastructure that creates lasting impact for the global vitiligo community. Our work addresses fundamental scientific and structural challenges — projects that require years of sustained effort, not months.

The Incyte Ingenuity Awards are designed to support community-based programs and local advocacy initiatives. These projects deliver valuable, human-scale benefits within a year. We recognize and respect their importance, but this focus differs from VRF’s core strengths and long-term mission.

VRF’s expertise lies in systems thinking, data infrastructure, and the strategic use of technology. Our strength is in building frameworks others can use — not in organizing community events or managing short-duration initiatives. Our role is to build the foundation and provide the evidence that others can rely on to create change.

Think about what this long-term approach has already built.

• Peer-reviewed publications that reshape how the field thinks about vitiligo.
• Small research grants we awarded years ago that have grown into pillars of today’s vitiligo R&D.
• A traveling Master Class on Vitiligo that brought expert training to physicians and communities underserved by traditional medical education.

And World Vitiligo Day — a coordinated global platform that now reaches millions across continents and has drawn more than fifty biotech companies into the vitiligo field. This transformation, documented in scientific literature, helped pave the way for the world’s first vitiligo-specific drug.

These outcomes didn’t happen in months. They are the result of strategic patience, systems thinking, and a commitment to infrastructure that compounds in impact over years.

Both approaches — the grassroots and the structural — are essential. They simply solve different parts of the same problem.

We are grateful for Incyte’s ongoing commitment to the vitiligo community and wish this year’s participants every success.

VRF will remain focused on projects that reflect our mission and deliver durable, measurable progress for people living with vitiligo worldwide — expanding vitiligo.ai, advancing research collaborations, and building the digital backbone that connects patients, physicians, and scientists around the globe.

Yan Valle

Prof., CEO Vitiligo Research Foundation