Directory of activities
Search these pages to explore a selection of our directory of activities. You can use the keyword search and filter
buttons to discover how we are addressing each of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and the five
priorities in our Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement Plan. You can also filter activities by
location and function.
Making a Difference Awards
Each year we host the Making a Difference Awards to celebrate the incredible and inspiring work of our University community. The awards highlight the extensive range of social responsibility initiatives of our staff, students, alumni and external partners, and covers categories such as benefit to research; widening participation; environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion
Global University Social Responsibility MOOC
Our university has contributed to the Global University Social Responsibility Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), which allows users to learn about the general framework of university social responsibility as well as understand effective practices to design, plan, implement, and evaluate their own activities.
University holds Talking Science Competition
Each year, the University’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH) hosts the ‘Talking Science Competition’ where second year undergraduate students and above are invited to share their ideas on how science can create a healthier, fairer and greener world, creating a unique opportunity to talk about a subject that really matters to them. Winners are selected by a panel made up of Faculty academic and professional services staff, alumni and sci comms students.
Black History Month Events at The University
Black history month is used as a time to give appreciation and recognition of the positive contributions that Black people have made to British Society and Internationally. It also provides an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments, share learning, and allows us time to reflect on the past, whilst being proud of our culture and identity. Each year we host a variety of events for staff and students to mark Black History Month. For example, our University’s Creative Manchester presented a lecture with award-winning writer, historian and broadcaster, Professor David Olusoga OBE, exploring what it means to be black and British and the role of black history today in celebration of Black History Month. David Olusoga is Professor of Public History at The University of Manchester, specialising in the British Empire and how different communities experience its lasting effects in modern society
Investigating the Housing and Construction Sector’s Role in Net-Zero Challenges
A research team from the Alliance Manchester Business School and Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR) is working on a project for The Productivity Institute: ‘Addressing the net-zero and productivity challenges: How could the housing and construction sector play a key role?’. The team is looking to develop a more precise understanding of the productivity challenges in the construction sector and hope to uncover ways in which more sustainable practices can deliver productivity improvements. The research project focuses on solutions for the UK market and involves extensive collaboration with industry. Importantly, the ultimate aim is to help advance towards the UK’s net-zero target and improve productivity growth targets.
The University Reduces Air Travel Emissions By 46%
Our University has cut our air travel emissions by 46% compared to pre-pandemic levels, decreasing them from 18,641 tonnes of CO2e (CO2equivalent) in 2018/19 to just over 10,000 tonnes of CO2e in 2022/23. The reduction in our emissions is equivalent to the carbon produced from driving over 32.5 million miles in an average petrol car. Our new travel policy, which was put into effect last year, supports our ambition to be a leader in developing sustainable research and teaching practices. It includes several changes such as encouraging staff to have meetings online rather than in-person and to consider travelling by rail rather than air.
Neurodiverse People in Manchester Advance Psychological Research
People with disorders are increasingly becoming ‘experts by experience’, playing key roles in the research process surrounding neurological and psychological disorders. In Manchester, Karen Leneh Buckle, an autistic person, and student at the University, chose to investigate autistic inertia, an overlooked aspect of living with autism. Karen’s 2021 research paper in Frontiers in Psychology was the first to describe this difficulty with stopping, starting, and changing tasks and has opened the door to many areas of further investigation to better understand autistic inertia and effective support strategies. Kern’s supervisors have now created practical guidelines for autism researchers to consider, increasing involvement, collaboration and trust between academics and the autism community.
Report uncovers ‘Institutional Racism’ in the Justice System
‘Racial Bias and The Bench’ is a report written by experts from our University and barrister Keir Monteith KC which has raised urgent questions about racial attitudes and practices in the justice system in England and Wales. The report is a response to the five-year strategy launched by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon to enhance equality and diversity in the judiciary and finds that it does not consider the issue of racism or even mention ‘racial bias’. Findings from the report conclude that 95% of respondents said racial bias plays some role in the processes or outcomes of the justice system, while 29% said it played a more ‘fundamental role.’
Project Helps Leaders Make Greater Manchester More Age-Friendly
To mark the UN’s International Day of Older Persons a lecturer in Social and Cultural Geography from our University has created a booklet which showcases the different ways older age is experienced in Greater Manchester, alongside an accompanying animation. This booklet offers a guide to a more immersive, flexible, creative and participatory approach for engaging with those within the category – enabling policy communities, academics, and others to gain a richer, localised and more personal understanding of what it means to be an older person. The project also responds to research and campaigns that have found representations of older age often fall back on medicalised, stereotypical accounts of what constitutes older lives.
Policy@Manchester’s Health Inequalities Digital Collection
Policy@Manchester is our University’s policy engagement institute that connects researchers with policymakers and influencers, nurtures long-term policy engagement relationships and seeks to enhance stakeholder understanding of pressing policy challenges. One of the institutes online collections, Health Inequalities draws on research from across the University, and offers evidence-led insight and policy recommendations on the causes, effects, and solutions to heath inequalities.
Ardwick Climate Action
Ardwick Climate Action in partnership with our University and Manchester City Council facilitated the closure of the A6 to raise awareness about air pollution. During the closure, we monitored pollution levels on the A6 and compared findings with data collected from days with average flows of traffic throughout the year. The event also hosted over 15 partners with activities on the day to provide education about climate issues.
Child Neurodevelopment and Autism Research Unit Launches in South Asia
A £6.95 million Global Health Research Unit on Neurodevelopment and Autism for children in South Asia is currently active with the help of University of Manchester expertise. The project began in September 2022 and is expected to conclude in August 2027. The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Neurodevelopment and Autism in South Asia Treatment and Evidence – known as NAMASTE – has been awarded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) using UK aid from the UK Government which supports global health research. NAMASTE builds on Manchester’s own autism programme and more than a decade of partnership with India, to implement a novel integrated detection-care pathway for young children with autism and their families in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, using lay health workers.
Staff Network Celebrates Black History Month
Each year staff at our University host many events during Black History Month. In previous years, the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network have hosted an afternoon with Dame Elizabeth Anionwu who is the author of ‘Dreams From My Mother’ and is a celebrated nurse and health care activist who co-founded the first ever Centre for Sickle Cell Anaemia sufferers in the UK. Other events include live performances from Testament and panels that discuss the effects of conspiracy and joint enterprise laws in racializing and criminalizing particular communities and cultures, with Professor David Olusoga OBE.
Author and broadcaster Jeffrey Boakye joins The University of Manchester
Jeffrey Boakye has been appointed Senior Teaching Fellow in Manchester Institute of Education (MIE). He is a high-profile author, broadcaster and journalist whose book, I Heard What You Said (2022), explores how racism in the classroom can be dismantled. Within MIE, Jeffrey hosts guest lectures and seminars, and takes on learning support roles that provide bespoke mentoring for individual students and trainee teachers.
University Researcher Gives Evidence to Support Levelling Up through R&D
A researcher at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at the University has given a speech at the Geography of Innovation international conference held in Milan, Italy in July to support an increase in R&D (research and development) public spending across the UK regions. This comes after concerns that the regional sub-national R&D is unevenly distributed, with London and the South East (LSE) accounting for 54% of the UK’s private R&D spending and 52% of the UK Government’s R&D expenditure. On Productivity a report written by experts from our University also seeks to understand and address gaps in economic performance across the UK.
Pop up exhibition: Living in a Material World
A free exhibition at Manchester Central Library curated by University of Manchester Art Gallery and Museum Studies students invites people to consider how materials have shaped medicine and healthcare, from the 19th century to the present day. The exhibition demonstrates how scientific knowledge has advanced the instruments and equipment used within medicine to suit sterilisation and disinfection standards. The displays also illustrates how new materials help healthcare become more accessible and question the affect they have on our planet.
University in Top 5 for UK-wide Cycle September Competition
Our University finishes top 5 in the UK and first in Greater Manchester in a global cycling competition for Cycle September. Staff and students cycled almost 19,000 miles across over 2,000 rides, with over 2 tons of CO2 avoided by cycling instead of driving.
Boys to Men Project
Professor David Gadd from our University’s School of Social Sciences receives the ‘Finalist’ award for the prestigious Celebrating Impact Prize of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Dave’s research project ‘From Boys to Men’ explores why some boys become domestic abuse perpetrators and what more can be done to prevent it. The ground-breaking research findings led to a number of significant interventions at a local and national level. The findings also contributed to Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority’s (GMCA) 10-year strategy to tackle gender-based violence, and the toolkit generated by the project has influenced school-based preventative strategies as well as being rolled out in Malta, France and Spain.
University Living Lab Nominated for an Earthshot prize
The University Living Lab applies the expertise of students to real-world sustainability challenges through developing student research projects with external organisations to help meet sustainability goals. The University Living Lab was created after Dr Jennifer O’Brien from our University’s School of Environment, Education and Development and Academic Lead for Sustainability Teaching and Learning was awarded a Higher Education and SDGs Challenge Grant by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). In 2022, over 40,000 staff and students at our University were nominated for The Earthshot Prize for their practical action on climate change. The Earthshot Prize utilizes the massive global force for sustainability to produce change whilst shaping the decision makers of the future. In the last two years, the University has saved CO2 through active travel, shaped municipal climate change policy, increased biodiversity and enabled ethical consumption whilst empowering and equipping the future workforce of a net zero world.
University Academics Develop a Framework for Conducting ‘Mediated Dialogue’
Academics from the University have worked with practitioners from the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation to develop a framework and toolkit for conducting ‘mediated dialogue’ with groups in conflict. The framework and toolkit is used in community safety and neighbourhood team roles, restorative youth or community practices by social services and youth offending teams for a broader range of groups experiencing escalating conflict or as an opportunity to repair relationships.
Top Floor of Manchester Museum Opens Up
Manchester Museum’s Top Floor is a space for people to come together to learn, share ideas and connect with the community. You’ll find education groups, charities, artists, writers, staff and students co-working and collaborating here, with a shared commitment to social and environmental justice. The Museum has also appointed Hannah Hartley as the Environmental Action Manager, where she works across all areas of the museum to drive forward its ambitions in environmental thinking and action, establishing sustainable practices, and building on the Museum’s rich experience in developing narratives and programming in response to the climate crisis.
Masters Student Awarded Prestigious British Neuroscience Association Scholarship
Our integrated master’s student, Haady Brendan Hajar, has recently been accepted to the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Scholars Programme for 2022. The BNA scholars programme strives to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in neuroscience through supporting students from under-represented ethnic groups.
University Launches £9 million Cost of Living Support for Students
In recognition of the significant challenges faced by students over rising costs, our University dedicates £9 million to provide student support. Registered students received a one-off cost-of-living payment, with full-time students receiving £170 and part-time students receiving £85, paid into their UK bank account. We also implement further assistance through cheaper food options, free microwave and hot water facilities, free showers, and free period products. Additionally, Library fines are removed, and free eBooks are provided to help students meet the costs of studying.
Confronting the Climate on Manchester’s Curry Mile
Last year researchers from the University’s Sustainable Consumption institute (SCI), held an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. ‘Mangoes, Meat and Motors: confronting the climate on Manchester’s Curry Mile’ took place at our Whitworth Art Gallery, with the purpose of encouraging a community-facing, friendly and generative discussion about how to make the Curry Mile a place that serves people and the environment better. The event was attended by local residents, businesses, grassroots activists and ten councillors and officers from the Manchester City Council.
University Publishes Initial Research into Historic Links with Slavery
Dr Natalie Zacek, Senior Lecturer in American Studies and Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice President for Social Responsibility have conducted preliminary research that analyses the connections between the University’s predecessor Institutions and historical slavery. This research has been carried out in response to our Race Matters report. The article has initiated new conversations that seek to address the implications, responsibilities and opportunities for the University to develop a deeper understanding of the past.