CareLoop

CareLoop is a digital tool developed by The University of Manchester with NHS clinicians and people with lived experience to help prevent mental health crises and relapse. A mobile app and clinician dashboard enable users to track daily wellbeing while care teams identify early warning signs and provide timely support. Clinical trials show it is safe, effective and supports preventative care, helping reduce pressure on inpatient services. Now advancing through CareLoop Health, the innovation is being adopted more widely, with NHS rollout and international pilots supporting its continued development and role in improving equitable access to care.

Furniture4Reuse Store

The University of Manchester’s Furniture4Reuse store extends the life of surplus furniture by redistributing it across campus and to local charities and community groups. The initiative supports sustainability by reducing waste and carbon emissions, while helping projects like Biko Bikes, a student‑led initiative making sustainable travel more accessible. It also supports Essentials, the University’s student basic needs centre, alongside local organisations including schools and Hulme Community Garden Centre, ensuring valuable resources are reused where they are most needed and create a positive impact across the community. 

Check out this video for more information. 

Partnership with Co-op Academy Medlock primary school

The University of Manchester is partnered with Co-op Academy Medlock in Ardwick, strengthening connections between the University and the local community. University of Manchester students deliver a range of engaging presentations, on topics including their passions, cultures and educational journeys, to pupils at the school. For the pupils, this provides valuable opportunities to learn about new topics and perspectives. For the university students, it offers meaningful experience in planning and delivering presentations, developing public speaking skills, and building confidence while engaging with the local community.

Greater Manchester Colleges partnership 

The University of Manchester, in partnership with Wigan & Leigh College and the wider Greater Manchester Colleges network, deliver a programme that places PhD researchers directly into Further Education (FE) classrooms across the region. Developed through the Greater Manchester Civic University Agreement, the initiative enables postgraduate researchers to teach up to 20 hours per week in FE settings, providing specialist expertise in priority subjects such as engineering, STEM and digital skills. In turn, the programme offers researchers valuable, paid teaching experience while helping colleges tackle critical local and regional skills gaps.

Building Bridges Project

Through the Building Bridges Project, we organise community gatherings across different venues in South Manchester to explore how to foster social cohesion and tackle hate crime. These events aim to bring together diverse communities, creating safe spaces to listen, share experiences, and build understanding. These local gatherings have enabled community members, including asylum seekers and Muslim residents, who were particularly affected by the unrest, to share their stories, hopes and fears, exploring how grassroots leaders can lead challenging but constructive conversations within their communities. To support this work, we facilitated mediated dialogue training for 20 local leaders involved in the project. The training, delivered by the Peace Collective, helped participants develop the skills needed to hold respectful and inclusive discussions on complex social issues. 

SEED Changemakers

SEED Change-makers is a student-led  initiative developed by the University’s School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED). It empowers undergraduate and postgraduate students to drive meaningful change. The programme provides a dynamic platform for students to transform their passions into impactful action through leading and collaborating on innovative social responsibility projects. For example, students launched the Give It, Don’t Bin It campaign to reduce waste left behind in student accommodation during move-out periods, and they have hosted thought-provoking lectures on active citizenship and rethinking sustainable community support.  

200 for 200: Bicentenary Recruitment Initiative

In 2024 were proud to create 200 meaningful employment opportunities for members of our local community. This initiative, led by the University in partnership with Aspire Recruitment, successfully reached and supported candidates from a wide range of underrepresented backgrounds. Of those engaged, 76.4% identified as BAME, 60.4% as female, 23.4% as LGBTQ+, and 12.4% declared a disability. 

Rapid Access Diagnostics in Asthma Clinic

The Rapid Access Diagnostics in Asthma (RADicA) project is developing and testing new approaches to improve the accuracy of asthma diagnosis. RADicA has made a significant impact across both clinical practice and research. Patients who participated have seen a marked improvement in the accuracy of their diagnoses.  

Give It, Don’t Bin It

The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester City Council and the British Heart Foundation are all working as a partnership to deliver our Give It, Don’t Bin It campaign. The campaign aims to help students donate their unwanted items to charity when moving property at the end of term.  

Klemzer in the Manchester Community

The Klezmorim of Manchester is a community klezmer musicking group organised by the co-directors of The University of Manchester Klezmer Ensemble. The project aims to bring accessible, modally diverse, and wide-reaching intercultural musicking encounters to Greater Manchester by collaborating regularly with local community groups.

Decolonise! trail at Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum has introduced a Decolonise! Trail as part of its ongoing commitment to confronting the legacies of Empire and prioritising anti-racism, equity, and justice. The trail provides a more thorough, transparent, and inclusive account of the Museum’s collections, acknowledging the realities of empire and ensuring the Museum remains a space for critical reflection and open dialogue. 

Driving urban transportation

Academics from Manchester Urban Institute at The University of Manchester have co-designed solutions that help to mitigate social exclusion with regards to public transport provided by the Greater Manchester Bee Network. They have co-produced a blueprint for community engagement and provided actionable recommendations to inform the development of more socially equitable services.

The Roundview

The Roundview, developed by University of Manchester academics through research and co-production with a range of partners, is a toolkit for sustainability thinking and learning. The toolkit offers a unique, holistic approach to counteract potential barriers to action; shifting away from overwhelm and anxiety towards hope and inspiration. Learning toolkits have been provided to libraries across Greater Manchester to engage schools and community groups. 

Once a Month

Once a Month, created at the University of Manchester, is a student-led volunteer initiative tackling period poverty. They host monthly packing sessions to supply charities with period products and publish a monthly newsletter on topics such as menstrual health and the gender pain gap. The project’s success has led to its expansion across UK universities. 

Service Learning in Pharmacy

This project involves pharmacy undergraduates delivering assessed core curriculum public engagement workshops to high school pupils. Workshops covers a variety of public health topics relevant to 14–16 year-olds such as Antibiotic Resistance, Alcohol, Diabetes, Mental Health & Sexual Health Awareness.

Partnership with Stone Group

In IT Services we have a strong commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. In a move to support local youth and promote digital equality, IT Services at the University in partnership with IT Provider, Stone Group, has donated laptops to the RAFAC 1263 (Rochdale) Squadron.

Travel plan

We have a Travel Plan which aims to lower our travel-related carbon footprint. This plan aligns with the Environmental Sustainability strategy and aims to reduce carbon emissions while ensuring fairness and affordability for all.

Dentists in Primary Schools (DiPS) programme

The aim of the Dentists in Primary Schools project is to implement engaging oral health sessions in primary schools across Greater Manchester, especially those in socially deprived.  

A group of undergraduate students have taken the local Dentists in Primary Schools (DiPS) programme halfway across the world. Through International DiPS, students from the Manchester Pediatric Dentistry Student Society have introduced healthy oral hygiene habits to hundreds of young children in Kisumu, Kenya.  

Bicentenary inclusive recruitment campaign

The Bicentenary inclusive recruitment campaign is an initiative contributing to our social responsibility objectives by diversifying the talent pools we recruit from. Designed to reduce unemployment and promote regional socio-economic development, this initiative reflects our commitment to creating a meaningful and lasting impact within Greater Manchester.

Green Careers Mission

Greater Manchester universities, in collaboration with local industry partners, have launched an innovative initiative developed by the GM Civic University Board’s Green Skills Working Group. Students from the five Greater Manchester universities form cross-institutional, interdisciplinary teams to address key local sustainability challenges. These challenges, presented by industry partners, align with the priorities of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). 

Celebrating diversity at Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum is dedicated to fostering understanding and connection between cultures through its diverse year-round calendar of events, including celebrations such as Diwali, Iftar, and Vaisakhi Festival. These events invite people of all ages and backgrounds to immerse themselves in the traditions, stories, and spirit of each festival, creating meaningful opportunities for cultural exchange and shared experiences.

The Lower Medlock Valley

We have partnered with Friends of Medlock Valley, a local community group, to promote biodiversity in inner city Manchester. Home to thousands of trees and open grasslands, the Medlock Valley is one of the city’s wildest and most ignored spaces, with few signs of the state or local authorities such as bins, benches or signage. This project aims to bring the University’s expertise and resources to scale up the group’s initiatives, with a series of workshops on historical memory through soil and trees, an appraisal of its ecological assets by staff in Earth Sciences at the University, and a durable set of information boards, wayfinders and artistic installations to embed the partnership within the community for years to come. 

Staff volunteering

We have an employee volunteering policy which provides all employees with the opportunity to request up to three days paid leave to participate in a volunteering activity of their choosing. We understand how important it is for staff to be able to give back to the wider community, whether that’s here in Greater Manchester, or further afield.

Roots to Dental

Roots to Dental programme is a service-learning initiative, delivered in collaboration with the Working Well scheme, a family of services that support people experiencing or at risk of long-term unemployment in Greater Manchester. The programme offers Dentistry students important learning opportunities while also serving the Greater Manchester community.  

Bee Circular

Bee Circular UoM is a student-led initiative focused on reducing food waste and fostering sustainability within the University of Manchester and its surrounding community through strategic partnerships and volunteer engagement.