Manchester Innovation Labs

Our Manchester Innovation Labs provide a robust, effective means of co-developing research projects with companies to address a business need.

Advancing STEM skills in Africa

Our Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics is using its global research status to advance innovative STEM training and infrastructure development for research communities across Africa.

This includes the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy and Big Data programmes, supporting self-sustaining research communities and investment in new research infrastructure in Africa.

Innovation research

Our Digital Futures network of 1,500 researchers across 30 disciplines is working with citizens, businesses and government to help understand and drive digital innovation.

We’re part of Health Innovation Manchester – an integrated ecosystem to discover, develop and deploy new solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million citizens.

Our Henry Royce Institute is a UK national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. Our National Graphene Institute and Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre provide an innovation ecosystem to research and develop graphene and other 2D material applications in areas such as energy storage, nanomedicine and water purification.

Influencing international and national employment policies to promote inclusive labour markets

Our Work and Equalities Institute is providing the evidence base to inform global employment debates and policies.

Research in three key areas is undertaken: minimum wage and collective bargaining; the gender pay gap; and precarious work.

This work is shaping guidance produced by international policy bodies and national policies of multiple countries, and is also providing evidence for European trade unions in their interactions with EU and national policymakers.

The Productivity Institute

Our Alliance Manchester Business School hosts The Productivity Institute – a new UK-wide £32 million research organisation exploring what productivity means for business, for workers and for communities, how it is measured and how it contributes to increased living standards and wellbeing.

It will help pinpoint the causes of stagnation in UK productivity and lay foundations for sustained and inclusive productivity growth by directly informing government policies and business strategies to improve productivity.

FutureDAMS Approach

As part of our world-leading FutureDAMS programme, we’ve produced a guide (PDF) to propose a series of steps and principles for conducting public, private and community stakeholder engagement in decision-making around water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) interventions.

This is underpinned by the principle that better decisions are generated when a broad range of stakeholders are included in a genuinely participatory manner.

Energy poverty

Our researchers have established a framework to explain how domestic energy deprivation affects households and communities.

Through a prolific programme of European-wide engagement – 100 events, 200 high-level presentations, ten policy briefs, two sets of EU member state energy poverty reports, and three pan-EU energy poverty reports – our research shaped the policy direction of the European Commission’s Vulnerable Consumer Working Group, the body responsible for developing EU energy policy.

Energy research beacon

Energy is one of our five research beacons and we have more than 600 academics addressing sustainable energy challenges.

Our On Energy publication is a collection of thought-leadership pieces from a selection of our staff, bringing together expert commentary, analysis and policy recommendations on issues such as climate change, fuel poverty, energy storage, and the economic viability of nuclear power and multi-energy systems.

Creating a fairer and greener energy supply

Our Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Tyndall Manchester have been collaborating with Electricity North West to help better manage its network, improving sustainability and saving money for the company and customers alike.

Our research with them addressed three key areas that impact electricity supply: smart distribution networks for managing supply with demand; managing power flow fluctuations; and assessing the carbon footprint of different network investment options.

Our work led to changes in their network investment, enhancing renewable energy sources and reducing energy bills for customers. This work could fundamentally change electricity supply in the UK, with approval being agreed for national rollout.

Smallholder irrigation development

Millions of smallholder farmers worldwide lack access to reliable and cost-effective water supplies for irrigation.

We’re working with small-scale farmers in Africa and Asia, governments and development agencies to design and assess technological, economical and institutional solutions to improve water access, livelihoods, and resilience to climate change.

Graphene water filtration

Our National Graphene Institute Membranes Lab has pioneered a graphene-oxide membrane that can filter salts out of water, making it safe to drink.

This game-changing technology is more efficient and affordable than other desalination technologies and could provide affordable and sustainable clean water solutions to millions of people.

On Gender

We produced On Gender to identify what we know – and what we need to know – about gender inequality in tackling the big policy agendas devolved to Greater Manchester and other areas, with devolution deals in areas such as ageing, labour markets, education, parenting and sexual violence.

Gender equality in global value chains

Our research into agriculture and apparel sectors in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and collaboration with three large UK retailers, has led to more than 390,000 workers in value chains in low- and middle-income countries directly benefiting from the implementation of gender-equitable strategies.

More than a million workers have been indirectly advantaged through opportunities for women to advance to leadership positions and new strategies from companies that have the potential to reach 33 million workers in 180 countries.

#BeeWell

#BeeWell is an initiative established in Greater Manchester in 2019 by our University, Anna Freud, The Gregson Family Foundation, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The programme aims to explore young people’s opinions on wellbeing and the ways in which it can be improved. The findings inform activity across Greater Manchester, with schools, voluntary sector organisations and children’s services working closely with young people to interpret and act on the results. 

Diversifying the school history curriculum

The collaborative History Lessons research project found that young people were keen to learn more inclusive histories, but teachers needed additional support and new resources for a more inclusive curriculum.

From this, we developed Our Migration Story with The Runnymede Trust and University of Cambridge, creating multiple award-winning web resources, lesson plans and classroom activities exploring the opportunities and challenges faced by Britain’s migrant communities.

Health Innovation Manchester

Health Innovation Manchester works to develop and deploy new solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million citizens.

We work in partnership with other regional institutions, authorities and health experts to respond to healthcare challenges across Greater Manchester, and drive national and global innovation agendas in frontline care.

Preventing cardiovascular disease through smart technologies

Our academics are part of a collaboration to improve cardiovascular care in Indonesia.

The team trained local health workers (kaders) on cardiovascular disease, risk factors and the technical use of an app called SMARThealth, benefiting 48,000 people.

Tackling groundwater arsenic and health inequalities in India

In northern India’s rural communities, increased exposure to high concentrations of arsenic and other chemicals found in groundwater has contributed to a rise in cancer and cardiovascular disease, adding to the public health inequalities and poor health outcomes of the region.

Our Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has shown the importance of rice as an exposure route for inorganic arsenic where microbes promote its release from materials such as sand and silt.

This research led to recommendations focusing on rice selection and preparation techniques, highlighting the dangers of groundwater irrigation.

Sustainable agriculture through electronic engineering

Our Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is examining how electronic engineering can improve food supply and sustainable energy production without increased pressures on our land.

E-Agri Manchester is using e-devices for reducing waste, increasing yields and making crops more resilient.

We also work on sustainable agriculture with the eight most research-intensive universities in the north of England through an N8 AgriFood programme.

Creating sustainable livelihoods through group farming

Our Global Development Institute has examined whether cultivating in groups – by voluntarily pooling land, labour, funds and skills and sharing costs and benefits – enables small farmers to create larger, more profitable enterprises in South Asia and beyond.

The research in Kerala, south India showed that carefully structured group farming created sustainable, food-secure livelihoods for vast numbers of poor women farmers.

Reproduction and austerity

Our academics are exploring the impact of austerity on reproduction.

The project uses a range of creative activities and interviews with women from areas in the north-east, where there are significant socio-economic barriers.

This project is providing new insights into contemporary austerity and how this may affect childbearing.

Inclusive growth in Greater Manchester

Our Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit was supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to analyse evidence about the scale of poverty and inequality in our city region.

It has recommended a range of policies on inclusive growth so that economic prosperity benefits all citizens across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Food insecurity in the UK

Working with Manchester City Council, Cracking Good Food, Save the Children, Oxfam and other charities, our Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research and Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing conducted pioneering research to document food insecurity in the UK following the economic recession. We studied homelessness, street begging, food-bank use and financial difficulties faced by older women, and developed a pilot tool for helping older people with their nutrition. Our research influenced the political debate on food insecurity and raised awareness of the issue in the media.