FBMH excels at Making a Difference Awards

18 May 2017

The Making a Difference Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our staff, students, alumni and external partners; and over 200 guests enjoyed seeing winners and highly commended entrants receiving their awards from Lemn Sissay, the University’s Chancellor at the Whitworth Hall.

This was the third year that awards have taken place and over 130 entries were submitted for nine different categories, including: Inspiring Communities, Outstanding Contribution to Research; Outstanding Public Engagement Initiative, Outstanding Contribution to Widening Participation and Outstanding Teaching Innovation, with all of the winners highlighting the significant difference they are making to the social and environmental wellbeing of our communities and wider society.

FBMH performed exceptionally with seven out of nine winners for the award categories and two winners out of three for the Volunteer of the Year Awards.  A complete list of winners and highly commended nominations can be found here and a short film about each of our winners can be found on the Social Responsibility YouTube channel.

Professor James Thompson, Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility said: “The Awards are a wonderful opportunity to recognise and celebrate the inspiring activities in which our dedicated staff, students, alumni and partners are involved. They provide the perfect opportunity to highlight the impact our colleagues and students are having, locally, nationally and across the world.”

Following the awards, on Tuesday 16 May, the Faculty hosted a celebratory “Afternoon Tea” at Christie Bistro to thank invitees for their contribution to social responsibility and to acknowledge the work of our Faculty in this area.

Around 70 people attended – academics, PSS staff, students and public contributors, including those who advise on our research and teaching, all of whom make a difference through their social responsibility activities.

In his opening address Professor Ian Greer, Vice President and Dean of FBMH, praised the very high quality of the social responsibility work in the Faculty and wished people involved in engagement and involvement activities “success and enormous impact on everything that they do”.

A series of four lightning talks offered guests an insight to the sheer diversity of FBMH social responsibility initiatives. The afternoon was a great success and was closed by the Vice Dean for Social Responsibility, Professor Mahesh Nirmalan, who offered his heartfelt thanks to everyone for their contribution.