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: Research
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.
Our 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. Through the University Living Lab, 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. In 2022, the Living Lab was nominated for The Earthshot Prize for practical action on climate change.
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.
We are involved in co-operative planning for climate change disasters at both local and regional levels, working closely with government. Locally, our Grow Green Project supports local government, partners and stakeholders to design and deliver a detailed green infrastructure masterplan for climate action resilience in West Gorton, Manchester. Regionally, our RESIN Eco-cities project involves leading a consortium of researchers at the forefront of urban climate adaptation research.
Policy@Manchester is our University’s sector-leading policy engagement institute. It connects researchers with policymakers and influencers, nurturing long-term policy engagement partnerships and impact.
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:
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 criminology researchers have linked up with leading research and technology development company, Trilateral Research, to collaborate on Project Honeycomb. This develops relationships with organisations across the private, public and civil society sectors, and supports them to record information related to modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation. Building on these insights, Honeycomb runs a series of campaigns and helps the city intelligently and creatively protect people from the crimes of human trafficking and modern slavery as well as interrupting traffickers’ activities.
A renowned engagement expert from our School of Environment, Education and Development is using her Ketso Connect community and stakeholder engagement toolkit to help the government’s Natural England advisers launch their National Recovery Network. This network aims to restore 75% of protected sites and to create or restore 500,000 hectares of additional wildlife-rich habitat. The project is piloting public and civic engagement models with local libraries across Manchester.
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.
Leading the way in achieving the University’s pledge to eliminate avoidable single-use plastic usage, staff in our School of Biological Sciences are reducing single-use plastics in the lab through adoption of a 6R approach. This has included:
Life below water, in rivers and at sea, is threatened by waste flowing from urban river channels into the oceans. We’ve been highlighting the effect of microplastics – very small pieces of plastic debris including microbeads, microfibres and plastic fragments – on river systems and marine life through a range of pro-active media coverage, engagement with water companies and input into UK legislation on water management.
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.
Through the Diverseafood project, our researchers are investigating how seafood can contribute to sustainable, healthy diets. They are assessing the best methods to transition to more diverse seafood intake by looking at the impacts of sustainable aquaculture at the levels of business models, policy, and consumer acceptance.
Climate scientists at our Tyndall Centre are partnering with Bristol-based band Massive Attack to jointly examine the carbon footprint of the music industry. Utilising data from the Massive Attack touring schedule will provide information and guidance to the wider music industry to reduce negative environmental impacts.
Our academics are involved in GrowGreen, a five year, EU-wide project that promotes nature-based solutions to climate change. The project involves a range of citizens, business and public-private partnerships in neighbourhoods and across cities to promote learning, sharing and replicating nature-based solutions and strategies to urban sustainability challenges.
Our Manchester Museum has been awarded Arts Council England and National Lottery Project Grant funding for an ambitious two-year partnership project in collaboration with Museum Development North West and the Carbon Literacy Trust. The project will accelerate the museum sector’s ability to respond to the climate crisis. The Museum will host the ‘roots’: creating a nationally significant co-working hub of cultural environmental action that will bring together museum staff, educators, environmentalists, artists, researchers, third sector organisations and students.
Research by Alliance Manchester Business School has demonstrated how large-scale transitions are needed to deliver significant climate change. This has transformed how reducing greenhouse gas emissions is understood and addressed by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has fed directly into policy recommendations made by the European Environment Agency.
To enable the UK to deliver significant carbon emissions reductions, the University created the Tyndall Local Carbon Budget Tool, helping cities, regions and organisations to play their part in achieving the global Paris Agreement. Building on the Setting City Area Targets and Trajectories for Emissions Reduction (SCATTER) project, this foundational research established the importance of embedding carbon budgets – rather than end point targets – in setting carbon reduction targets. It has been used by 250 UK local authorities, led local policymakers to focus on immediate emissions reductions and shaped global policy as part of the United Nations’ Race to Zero initiative.
We worked with colleagues at The University of Sheffield on Change Points to develop new ways of understanding how householders’ routine activities end up demanding resources, including energy, food and water. A key output was the co-design of a toolkit to support policy makers and other non-academic stakeholders interested in developing nuanced policy processes and business practices around household sustainability.
Our One Bin to Rule Them All research programme has drawn on our Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub in our Henry Royce Institute, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Sustainable Consumption Institute to work with 17 industry partners and local authorities to address key challenges in the plastics lifecycle. Researchers from our Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub are also working with the manufacturer Callaly to develop alternative sustainable materials for menstrual hygiene products to help combat the growing need for natural-renewable alternatives for plastics.
Talking Science Competition
University Living Lab
Working with Industries to Prevent Aquatic Ecosystem Damage
Sustainable farming and food production: sharing our facilities and knowledge
Cooperative planning for climate change disasters
Policy@Manchester
Public engagement partnerships
In Place of War project
Project Honeycomb
Nature Recovery Network
Species conservation
Community forestry in Nepal
Getting to the root of poor soil health and bringing it back to life
Making labs greener
UK rivers and microplastics
Ocean warming and shark survival
Removing harmful pollutants from industrial wastewater with innovative technology
Diverseafood
The carbon footprint of the music industry
GrowGreen project
Roots and Branches
Changing how international policy organisations understand and manage environmental problems
Empowering local climate-change action
Change Points
Sustainable materials research
