diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index ae453f8a9511..187703746085 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ project(
   # Note that the git commit hash cannot be added dynamically here (it is added
   # in the dynamically generated and installed `scipy/version.py` though - see
   # tools/version_utils.py
-  version: '1.12.0.dev0',
+  version: '1.12.0rc1',
   license: 'BSD-3',
   meson_version: '>= 1.1.0',
   default_options: [
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 397fe396ad1d..103c3f4e76ef 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ requires = [
 
 [project]
 name = "SciPy"
-version = "1.12.0.dev0"
+version = "1.12.0rc1"
 # TODO: add `license-files` once PEP 639 is accepted (see meson-python#88)
 #       at that point, no longer include them in `py3.install_sources()`
 license = {file = "LICENSE.txt"}
diff --git a/tools/version_utils.py b/tools/version_utils.py
index 048e00ecd17c..0628cabc8b55 100644
--- a/tools/version_utils.py
+++ b/tools/version_utils.py
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@
 MAJOR = 1
 MINOR = 12
 MICRO = 0
-ISRELEASED = False
+ISRELEASED = True
 IS_RELEASE_BRANCH = True
-VERSION = '%d.%d.%d' % (MAJOR, MINOR, MICRO)
+VERSION = '%d.%d.%drc1' % (MAJOR, MINOR, MICRO)
 
 
 def get_version_info(source_root):