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.
searching subjects: Global
We participate in the UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day every year, celebrating the cultural diversity and multilingualism in Manchester. The events to commemorate this day are focused on language and are led by libraries, community groups, universities, schools, poets, and writers.
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.
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.
‘From Boys to Men’, a project from our School of Social Sciences, 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.
We have an annual, student-led DentMan conference which seeks to encourage students in dentistry to explore our pioneering humanising dentistry concept and give them freedom and space to engage with the community and the wider global society through outreach and volunteering programmes. It also provides a platform for dental students to demonstrate and recognise how they have made a difference to dental health inequalities across Greater Manchester and beyond. In recent years, the conference has reached a global audience, with over 200 staff, students, and oral healthcare professionals from both the University of Manchester and University of Ghana in attendance.
A Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Manchester has been working with an international team of colleagues to create a pioneering research platform called ‘Virtual Labs’, which uses autonomous AI to retrieve and share relevant knowledge with research teams around the world who are now in a race to mitigate the impact of climate change. The technology will also help fast-track new research and innovation to support breakthroughs in diverse areas of study, from the development of new advanced materials to the design of new drugs.
The voices of 40 migrant-background 14-18-year-olds in Manchester and Melbourne have taken part in producing a climate education resource for teachers, students and researchers, entitled Young People at a Crossroads: Stories of climate education, action and adaptation from around the world. The project was led by the University of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute in partnership with researchers at the University of Melbourne. The team set out to explore and enable conversations about climate change in homes where, through migration, parents and young people grew up in times and places with different exposures to environmental challenges and different information about climate change.
Dr. Sherilyn MacGregor, Reader in Environmental Politics at our University, is the lead author of a major report commissioned by Oxfam America that investigates the impacts of climate breakdown, climate mitigation and adaptations on care work. The report calls for greater actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions and a more significant focus on the nexus of climate and care work within policy and research. It points to the need for climate initiatives to pursue gender-transformative approaches via the adoption of care sensitive interventions.
Our two multi-disciplinary teams from the University have been working with The British Council (UK) and AdvanceHE to promote improved gender equity in higher education and research institutions. In India, we are working with their Department of Science and Technology (DST) on the Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) project which promotes women in STEMM at tertiary institutions.
Manchester Day of Action (MDoA) is our annual flagship volunteer programme where alumni from across the world are invited to choose a local project that needs volunteer assistance. Each project relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and a team of alumni work together to support the project during the ‘Day of Action,’ which takes place during the summer.
Each year our Manchester China Institute teams up with the Manchester China Forum (MCF) and The University’s International Office to integrate new Chinese students into campus life, while simultaneously enriching the campus experience for local students. The Manchester-China Friendship Programme (MCFP) further seeks to develop mutual understanding and friendships between British and Chinese students which is particularly important at a time when anti-Asian prejudice, discrimination, and aggression has increased in the UK and around the world. Integration is at the heart of the programme, as we hope to address the long-standing issue of hostility and racially targeted violence faced by the Chinese student communities on western campuses.
Our work in hydrology and hydrochemistry to understand metals, carbon and gases in water systems has led to the development of a highly successful spin-out company, Salamander, which has brought to market two cutting-edge pieces of water monitoring software – chloroclam and hydroclam – which are being used in industry to improve water and marine system monitoring. We have also undertaken work to understand hypoxia – dead fish zones – which has directly informed marine industry practice on aquatic ecosystems.
We provide access to university facilities (e.g. labs, technology, plant stocks) to local farmers and food producers to improve sustainable farming practices as part of our H3 programme – one of four research consortia funded by the £47.5M ‘Transforming UK Food System for Healthy People and a Healthy Environment SPF Programme’ delivered by UKRI, in partnership with the Global Food Security Programme, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, Defra, DHSC, PHE, Innovate UK and FSA. As part of this programme we provide local food producers with access to our proprietary technologies allowing them to diversify their food production. This includes access to our laboratories in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology for analysis of crop nutrition and soil carbon. We are also building a hydroponic demonstrator as part of an InnovateUK Knowledge Transfer Partnership with a local Manchester-based company who are producing a sustainable artificial growth substrate. This company has access to university facilities and technologies that is aiming to bring to market new and sustainable growth medium. This will develop a new way of reusing waste foam by mixing foam particles with adhesives that absorb water, to make a new type of synthetic soil, with many different applications that have benefits for advancing sustainable food growing practice. As part of this we are building a demonstrator at The Firs. The Firs environmental research station has recently undergone a major redevelopment with the investment of £2million from the university’s endowment fund which has enabled the creation of a state of the art greenhouses facilities that are being used for issues relating to food security and climate change. The site is made up of fourteen climate controlled growing compartments which are able to produce a range of different environments from tropical to sub-arctic. By doing this they are able to simulate different growing environments to replicate conditions from around the world and conditions as a result of climate change.
Fresh-water ecosystems (community outreach) Additionally, peatland restoration working with Professor Martin Evans has focused on flood mitigation and greenhouse gas reduction in collaboration with Moors for the Future, National Trust, Environment Agency, United Utilities, Yorkshire Peat Partnership and others. Sustainable fisheries (community outreach) Prof Holly Shiels is also working on the impact of fossil fuel-based pollution on commercially important fish like cod and halibut and has shared this work with local and global communities through an engaging video. Our NanoWhales Project has also been supporting the fight against the accumulation of plastic waste in the Mediterranean on life under water through the expeditions and the development and sharing of free resources highlighting the plight of the whales. Overfishing (community outreach) Conservation and sustainable utilisation of the oceans (events) Professor Holly Shiels is the President of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles – a society that works to the benefit of fish biology and fisheries science. An example of a recent event that took part through this Presidency has been on Fish Habitat and Ecology in a Changing Climate.
Examples of our civic partnerships include: We also prioritise global partnerships to advance our work towards the SDGs. These include:
We signed the international SDG Accord as part of our ongoing commitment to social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Our Alliance Manchester Business School also signed the Principles for Responsible Management in Education (PRME). We are a founding member of the UK’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
We partner with a range of organisations to carry out meaningful public engagement with diverse audiences and share ideas and research as well as inspiring informed discussion, debate and creativity. Examples include:
We’re committed to empowering students with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to address all of the SDGs through partnerships with public, private and civil society organisations. Our University Living Lab platform connects student projects with external organisations to address the SDGs. Our Volunteer Hub acts to advance partnerships between hundreds of charities and our student volunteers. And many academic programmes offer service-learning partnerships, where external organisations benefit from practical student interventions in areas such as dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, business and legal advice.
In Place of War (IPOW) is a global spin-out charity from research in our School of Music and Drama. IPOW works with grassroots organisations in refugee camps, war-affected villages, towns under curfew, cities under occupation, and refugee communities, using creativity in places of conflict as a proven tool for positive change. IPOW enables communities and grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform a culture of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom.
Our Manchester Museum Vivarium is dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians. We recently partnered with Panama Wildlife Charity PWCC on non-invasive research and conservation education involving local communities in the Santa Fe National Park in Panama. This led to a world first in 2021: one of the world’s rarest toads, the Harlequin Frog, was successfully bred in captivity outside its country of origin, at our museum. We also curate a world-famous FrogBlog and deliver a digital Learning with Lucy conservation programme for schools.
Deforestation is the second leading cause of climate change after fossil fuels, accounting for almost a fifth of planet-warming emissions. Our researchers led an international and interdisciplinary team of ecologists, economists and political scientists in the largest ever study of community forestry. Studying 18,000 community-led forest initiatives in Nepal we found that community-forest management led to a 37% relative reduction in deforestation and a 4.3% relative reduction in poverty.
Researchers in our Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences have examined degraded soils of grasslands in Kenya and China to understand the role of soil biodiversity in creating and supporting healthy ecosystems. We’ve scaled up novel approaches to harness ecological connections between native soil microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, algae) and native plants to accelerate recovery from degraded to healthy soil. Tools have been developed to provide accessible and practical knowledge for local communities to repair soils and public and policy awareness has been raised of the vital importance of soil biodiversity on a global scale.
Our undergraduate students have assisted a study into the effects of warming ocean waters on the small-spotted catshark embryo’s freeze response: a technique whereby the embryo stops moving so that predators won’t detect them. The research found that with a 5°C water temperature increase there was a seven-fold decrease in the length of time the embryos froze for in the presence of a predator stimuli, indicating that as oceans warm, many shark and ray species may reduce in number due to increased predation.
Researchers in Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences have worked with our spin-out company Arvia Technology to develop an electrochemical process that has dramatically reduced wastewater pollution levels and enabled water recycling across numerous industries. The Arvia process has reduced pollutant levels from pesticides to match UK drinking water standards; removed 90% of pharmaceutical residues and natural hormones from industrial wastewater; and reduced the release of high microbial wastewaters which can cause anti-microbial resistance. Arvia Technology has now installed treatment systems in 25 companies across 11 countries, including the UK and China.
We’re ending investments in fossil fuel reserve and extraction companies by 2022, and ‘decarbonising’ all other investments by 2038. This policy was developed in consultation with the University’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and our Students’ Union.
International Mother Language Day
Making a Difference Awards
Global University Social Responsibility MOOC
From Boys to Men
DentMan conference
Using AI to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges
Young People at a Crossroads: Diverse Voices Contribute to Climate Education Resource
University Publishes Report on Caring in a Changing Climate
Promoting gender equity in academia
Manchester Day of Action
Manchester-China Friendship Programme enhances social inclusion on Campus
Working with Industries to Prevent Aquatic Ecosystem Damage
Sustainable farming and food production: sharing our facilities and knowledge
SDG 14 – Life Below Water: engagement activities
We offer free educational programmes on fresh-water ecosystems (water irrigation practices, water management/conservation) for local and national communities. For example, Prof Jamie Woodward’s work on microplastic accumulation in UK waterways has been massively influential and has been shared and co-developed with on local anglers (Tame Rivers Anglers) and charities (Rivers Trust and Friends of the Earth) to influence UK policy and the wider public through engaging videos to engage the public and through BBC documentaries that have a global reach (link 1 link 2) and also through educational resources for school children.
We offer free educational programme and outreach for local and national communities on the sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism. For example, the overfishing of sharks and rays is the primary cause for their catastrophic (>80% of populations threatened with extinction) decline in the past 25 years. Our University’s Shiels lab contributed key images and a novel developmental scale for catsharks used in one of the largest educational citizen science outreach projects in the UK, The Great Egg Hunt, run in partnership with The Shark Trust. Over the Easter weekend in 2022 a fantastic 7,560 eggcases were recorded across the UK and scaled using our data. The images and scale has also been included in the Field Studies Centre leaflets used at their marines stations for teaching school groups across the UK, furthering our engagement with the public.
We offer free educational outreach activities for local and national communities to raise awareness about overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices. For example, Professor Holy Shiels worked in partnership with the Physiological Society – Europe’s largest network of physiologists – to create and share 4-video educational outreach video-blogs for local, national and international communities on location in the Arctic regarding the Greenland Shark and impact of overfishing in the Halibut fishing industry on this enigmatic species. We also partner with Sustainable Fish Cities, using educational outreach activities across Manchester to raise awareness about destructive fishing practices and promote sustainable fishing.
We support and organise events aimed to promote conservation and sustainable utilisation of the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and marine resources. Our Shiels lab contributes to the Shark Trust and European Elasmobranch Society (a non-profit organisation coordinating European activities of national European organisations dedicated to the study, management or conservation of sharks, skates, rays, and chimaeras) meetings with student talks and keynote lectures on shark and ray conservation – for example see this link. The Shiels lab also works on sharks and climate change events in partnership with the BBC, through marine magazine activities and also through free events that have taken place in partnership with the Fisheries Society for the British Isles on video platforms that examine climate change and sharks in UK waters.
Social responsibility partnerships
SDG partnerships
Public engagement partnerships
Student learning partnerships
In Place of War project
Species conservation
Community forestry in Nepal
Getting to the root of poor soil health and bringing it back to life
Ocean warming and shark survival
Removing harmful pollutants from industrial wastewater with innovative technology
Divesting from fossil fuels
