In June our Chancellor, poet, playwright and big supporter of our social responsibility agenda, Lemn Sissay, was awarded an OBE for services to literature and charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Well done Lemn! Our annual Community Festival returned recently for three days of exploration, interaction and conversation to engage families and audiences from the under 5’s to the over 60’s, fostering links with our communities to share our knowledge, culture and facilities and provide interactions between staff, students and community members. And we returned the first report from our Alliance Manchester Business School to the PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) – a UN-backed initiative to the Sustainable Development Goals through responsible management education.

On social inclusion, our Manchester Access Programme (MAP), the University’s flagship widening participation scheme, is continuing to engage and support local sixth form students in an online format. During the pandemic, our students volunteered 200 hours to transform a local women’s shelter garden. Our Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) has won a grant from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to investigate how organisations embed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their strategic business decisions. And our AMBS colleagues also featured in a major Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) report Business Schools and the Public Good, recognising our best practice in addressing public good through our work.

On better health, we are Feeling our impact in our new film and set of research stories, which show how our collaborations, partnerships and innovative thinking is leading to improvements in the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer. Our researcher, Emma Crosbie wins Making a Difference Award for outstanding research impact linking Lynch syndrome to womb and bowel cancer. And experts from the University and the Anna Freud Centre are working with leaders from Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the city-region’s secondary schools on a major new project – #Beewell – which will survey children about their wellbeing and preparedness for life beyond school, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On environmental sustainability, our Students’ Union recently launched the Steve Biko Sustainability Fund. The £50,000 fund is to help support our students create more impact with their own projects to creating a sustainable world. Professor Frank Geels from our Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) has been appointed as the Co-Investigator of a new £20 million UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)-funded Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC), to provide solutions to challenges currently faced by energy-intensive industries such as steel, chemicals, and cement. Our Policy@Manchester platform launched On Air Quality setting out analysis and policy recommendations to tackle air pollution.

On cultural engagement we are working with Manchester International Festival on two of their key events – The Big Ben Lying Down with Political Books and The Walk. We supported Manchester’s first ever trailblazing five-day long Festival of Libraries organised by UNESCO Manchester City of Literature and supported by Arts Council England. We were delighted to re-open our John Rylands Library on 24 June. Our Manchester Museum has been working in collaboration with Museum Development North West and the Carbon Literacy Trust on Roots & Branches, an ambitious two-year partnership project which aims to accelerate the museum sector’s ability to respond to the climate crisis. And check out our impact film on cultural engagement which showcases ways that our cultural institutions are advancing the social, environmental and individual wellbeing across our communities.

We hope you’re taking up opportunities to be inspired, entertained and connect with others through our wide programme of events. In particular remember that whilst you need to book in advance, all four of our cultural institutions are open to the public – the Manchester Museum, the Whitworth, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and the John Rylands Library.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility