President's Weekly Message
14 January 2016
I hope you all managed to take a good break over the Christmas and New Year holidays and were not too affected by the bad weather and terrible floods.
You may have been watching ‘Stargazing Live’. Once again this has been transmitted live from the University’s Jodrell Bank Observatory and presented by Professor Brian Cox and the comedian Dara O’Briain. It included a link-up with the British astronaut Tim Peake and appearances from media personalities such as John Bishop (a local and regular visitor to Jodrell). The last of the three episodes is on BBC 2 tonight, but you can see all episodes on BBC iPlayer at:
I chaired a meeting of the Local Organising Committee of EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF). Progress continues to be excellent with a very exciting programme including many brilliant speakers, significant sponsorship and some registrations are in already - even before we have announced the programme!
I hosted a meeting for the Vice-Chancellors of North West universities which was attended by about a dozen VCs. We discussed how universities work with local councils and enterprise partnerships, the current request from government for interest in audits of science and innovation strengths, the government’s green paper on teaching excellence and the Nurse review of research councils.
I met Sir Peter Fahy who recently retired as Chief Constable for Greater Manchester and has taken up an honorary professorship with us in Criminal Justice. Peter is now the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stockport-based charity Retrak, which is working to support street children across the world. There are many parallels to our own work on poverty, international development and volunteering.
I chaired a further meeting of the oversight group concerned with the implementation of the outcomes of the review of life sciences and cognate disciplines. We noted that over 900 staff had been asked to comment on their proposed location within structures in the new Faculties of Biology, Medicine and Health and Science and Engineering. Many have replied already and well over 90% agreed with their suggested location. Others have suggested different locations which are being considered.
I spent several days in London last week and this week at committees of the Royal Society and I attended an evening event for business leaders organised by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills at the Science Museum in London. There were about 400 attendees mainly from business. The Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, Sajid Javid, was the main speaker. He was introduced by the Chair of the Science Museum Group, Dame Mary Archer, who gave a great trailer for ESOF, speaking of the great excitement of events in Manchester in July and European City of Science and referring people to me to learn more - several attendees asked me about it!
Senior colleagues and I considered candidates for honorary degrees and national honours - we always welcome staff suggestions for such nominations.
Professor Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), visited the University. I have known Jackie since we were post-docs together in London and I was sorry to hear that she will be standing down from BBSRC but wish her every success in her new role as CEO of a biotech start-up company. We discussed the changes to Research Councils as proposed in the Nurse review and how the University’s research fits with BBSRC’s future priorities (The University of Manchester is the largest single holder of BBSRC grants in the UK).
I had lunch with Professor Dame Julia King, the Vice-Chancellor of Aston University, who is also a member of the Science and Technology Honours committee with me, a member of EPSRC Council and has just joined the House of Lords. Julia was in Manchester for a meeting of the partners (with well over 300 attendees) involved or interested in the Sir Henry Royce Institute, as she has recently become the independent chair of the Royce. She was impressed by all the work we have done so far on the Royce and is very committed to making it a great success.
I presented to a meeting of Fulbright Fellows from the USA who are studying across the UK and were spending a couple of days in Manchester. They had a fantastic programme, including talks from our Professor of popular history, Michael Wood, the Leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese and Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov and visits to The Whitworth, John Rylands Library and the National Graphene Institute where they made graphene! I talked to them about leading a major university and a little about how I came to be President and Vice-Chancellor.
Mike Blackburn, who is BT’s Regional Director for the North West, Vice President, Strategy and Planning, for BT Global Services, and also Chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), came to talk to me about the LEP and our research links with BT, and about wider public engagements, as the company is providing great support for ESOF in July in Manchester.
Professor Luke Georghiou, Vice-President for Research and Innovation, and I met Stephen Critchlow, one of our alumni who founded leading healthcare IT provider Ascribe (now part of EMIS Health) and is currently CEO of Ascent Ventures, experts in starting and growing businesses that are driven by a desire to make a difference. We discussed business models for innovation in universities (always a complex and controversial issue) and how Stephen can help us in specific areas of innovation.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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