It has been a busy period of awards, recognition and successes for a number of staff involved in social responsibility. On 1 May the University’s Chancellor Lemn Sissay and President and Vice Chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell presided over our annual Making a Difference Awards. Congratulations go out to all our winner winners and highly commended entrants. You can read our blog and watch the event on our Youtube channel. Earlier that same day we also recognised the extraordinary achievements of staff, students and alumni with a University Medal for Social Responsibility for their volunteering commitments. Well done to Michelle McHale (alumni winner), Charlotte Auty (student winner) and Dr Sean Pert (staff winner) and everyone else who was commended.

We were delighted that Prime Minster Teresa May recently announced that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are providing £16.1million of funding towards our ‘First Light at Jodrell Bank’ project. This will create a spectacular new gallery building for the public that will promote and celebrate Jodrell Bank’s world-leading place in the history of astronomy, and a pioneering chapter in British scientific and cultural history.

A big thank you goes to the 2,300 University staff, students and alumni who took part in the recent SimplyHealth Great Manchester Run. Forming their own ‘Purple Wave’, participants have already raised £28,000 for key causes. Congratulations also go to Professor Amanda Bamford who was recently confirmed as the University’s co-lead for environmental sustainability. And well done to our Director of Social Responsibility, Dr Julian Skyrme, who picked up an Institute of Directors award for his work on the University’s social responsibility agenda.

A wide range of events have taken place recently. Over 400 members of the public, local policy-makers, charities and activists attended a Rubbish Night at the Museum event to engage audiences with the challenges of waste generation and management in urban areas. Our multi-award winning School Governor Initiative brought many of our 600+ staff and alumni governors together for an annual conference to hear from experts and share perspectives on the latest developments in schools. Schools in our Faculty of Science and Engineering organised a day of inspiring activities for young girls in support of the Bring Your Daughter to Work – a campaign for gender balance in science, technology and engineering. Hundreds of local pupils and their families celebrated the completion of challenging work with our PhD students and the Brilliant Club’s Scholars Programme. And more pupils from across Greater Manchester joined staff in our Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health event ‘999 What’s your emergency?’ to learn first-hand about the role healthcare professional’s play in emergency response and care.

The spring and summer months bring even more events, talks, exhibitions and performances to engage the public – both on and off campus. Between 7 and 11 June we are leading many of the Manchester Histories Festival events. You can join us on 8 June at The Magic of Musicals – a magical journey filled with favourite songs from musicals and Disney films. We open our doors to all our neighbours on 16 June as part of our annual Community Festival. We are welcoming over 30,000 children from across the UK to our Great Science Share for Schools 2018 on the 19 June. And don’t forget that tickets are available for our award-winning annual Bluedot Festival at Jodrell Bank on 19-22 July which promises a stellar line-up of music with ground-breaking programme of science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks.

Lisa Govey

Communications and Engagement Manager for Social Responsibility