A busy town centre scene.

Prosperous communities

Prosperous communites is one of the five priorities in our Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement plan.

Our vision for prosperous communities is to increase economic wellbeing, develop new sectors, innovate, and improve productivity for all people and all areas of our city region.

We aim to enable healthy, sustainable, inclusive economic growth through our research, partnerships and teaching.

Research, discovery and innovation

We are using our knowledge and discovery to enhance innovation in key economic sectors of the national and regional economy through:

  • Working with business and other partners to develop new programmes and initiatives that link our research strengths to local industry needs. We are focusing on advanced materials, digital and creative, low carbon, and health innovation.
  • Playing a lead role in establishing the new Advanced Manufacturing and Productivity Institute.
  • Working in partnership with North West Productivity Forum and Scale-Up Forum to engage with local businesses to develop joint research projects that respond to the needs of industry.

Business, public and policy engagement

We are working in partnership and sharing our knowledge and expertise locally and nationally to advance prosperity through:

  • Developing a new industry-led innovation partnership organisation, Innovation GM, to provide the leadership, coordination and delivery capacity needed to create an innovation ecosystem in Greater Manchester and the North to match those seen in the world’s most successful and prosperous regions.
  • Undertaking policy engagement and commissioning activity to address lower levels of prosperity in specific areas of Greater Manchester, building on the example of the Oldham Economic Review.
  • Bringing our research and ideas to life through our Innovation Factory.
  • Engagement with national and regional economic policy developments such as the Local Enterprise Partnership, Northern Powerhouse Partnership, North West Business Leadership Team, and Innovation GM.

Skills

We are nurturing skilled professionals of tomorrow from all backgrounds that support the GM and national economy by:

  • Working to enhance collaboration through the new GM Higher Education – Further Education Alliance to bring together GM’s five universities and nine further education colleges to create a world-leading and locally relevant further and higher education system for GM.
  • Supporting students and graduates to establish start-up businesses, in particular through our Masood Entrepreneurship Centre.
  • We deliver a range of apprenticeships and continuous professional development programmes.

Anchor operations  

We are using our anchoring role as a key urban place-maker to enhance inclusive growth and regional prosperity by:

Working with civic partners outside Greater Manchester to ensure that the University’s impact on the wider region is maximised, including Jodrell Bank in Cheshire and the Dalton Cumbrian Facility in Cumbria.