Register now for our Innovation Festival: 5-9 October 2026
19 Aug 2026
Our inaugural Innovation Festival is your chance to discover what’s happening across our innovation ecosystem and how innovation can strengthen your research, teaching, knowledge exchange and real-world impact.
Register now for the opportunity to connect across disciplines, find new collaborators and explore the pathways, partnerships and funding opportunities that can help turn ideas into impact.
Event highlights:
- Launch event: Building impact through innovation, from Manchester for the world
Explore Manchester’s renewed role in UK innovation and politics – and the challenges and priorities in making the University the most innovative in Europe by 2035.
- Manchester to market
Showcasing The University of Manchester Innovation Factory’s most exciting intellectual property commercialisation opportunities.
- Powerhouse of innovation showcase
Drop-in for networking, discovery and collaboration, bringing together innovation-focused activities from across the University.
- The Cambridge x Manchester partnership innovation summit
Explore how collaboration can accelerate innovation-led growth and translate discovery into real-world impact, showcasing the partnerships, ideas and innovation strengths emerging across Manchester and beyond.
- The Founders’ Playbook
A live interview series putting anyone interested in building a business in the room with successful founders – exploring how they turned ideas, research and innovation into real, impactful companies.
- Coller AI competition
In the final of the Coller AI competition - championing responsible AI solutions to real-world challenges - University of Manchester AI startups pitch live to secure a £100,000 equity investment from The Jeremy Coller Foundation.
- Plus more core and fringe events – take a look at the full schedule.