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President's Weekly Update

15 December 2016

We have cause for another celebration for the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. We now have details of £39 million of funding from Cancer Research UK and the Department of Health for our Cancer Research UK Manchester Centre which is one of only two UK ‘major centres’. The Centre submission, which was led by Professor Nic Jones, is in partnership with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. Further funding of £2.75 million is planned for an Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre from Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research. This will support training of the next generation of cancer researchers - including 45 PhD students – to ensure the brightest scientists are attracted and supported in their career in cancer research.

I hosted a dinner to discuss our success to date and future plans in social responsibility, which was attended by about 40 staff from across the University. A clear message was the importance of embedding social responsibility into all our activities and that this should not be treated as an ‘extra activity’. The level of enthusiasm and excitement was notable and the evening was louder than any of the other such events I have hosted!

Thank you to all the staff who have already participated in our 10,000 Actions programme on environmental sustainability. It takes very little time and can be part of your normal activities. Many more people are using the period just before and after Christmas to set aside time to engage with this important programme. You can find out more and take part at:

At one of our regular meetings with members of the University of Manchester Students’ Union (UMSU) Executive this week, senior staff and I discussed the forthcoming Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), socially responsible investments and the next priorities for UMSU.

The following day at the Planning and Resources Committee meeting, which I chair, we discussed the TEF again and held the Annual Performance Review for the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, led by Dr Teresa Anderson. The Centre is doing incredibly well with a 41% increase in visitor numbers, a major funding for extension from the Heritage Lottery Fund and great acclaim for its fantastic Bluedot festival of music and science which will continue as an annual event.

I spent several days in London. I co-chaired the Council for Science and Technology (with Professor Sir Mark Walport, the government’s chief scientific adviser). It was reassuring to hear two government ministers state that they were confident that European staff in universities would have full right to remain here when the UK leaves the European Union and they encouraged us to publicise this. We also heard that the government’s announcement for extra funding for research and development is most definitely ‘new money’, though details of how this will be allocated have yet to be agreed.

I also attended dinners at the Royal Society for the Right Honourable George Osborne and at the Royal College of Physicians to discuss ‘Corridor Manchester’ (which I chair), with a group of staff from the ‘Knowledge Quarter’ in London, which is the area around King’s Cross/St Pancras and shares much in common with Corridor Manchester.

While in London, I met Sir Philip Campbell, the editor of Nature, whom I have known for many years, to talk about challenges in research and research leadership, addressing global challenges and the importance of social care in addressing health needs. 

In a meeting with Dr Ruth McKernan, chief executive of Innovate UK (we also go back a long way), we discussed the additional government funding and the new ‘industry challenge fund’, and in another meeting with Dr Anne-Marie Coriat (head of research training at the Wellcome Trust), we considered wider training for younger researchers and support for those moving into independent academic positions.

Dr Gian Fulgoni and his wife Serinda visited the University. Gian is one of our alumni, a generous donor and chair of the North American Foundation of The University of Manchester. We talked about how we can recruit more students to Manchester from the USA and our next Board meeting in New York in May.

I have begun the annual series of performance and development reviews (PDR) for senior staff who report to me and will be having my own PDR in the New Year with the Chair of our Board of Governors.

I called into the party in the Students’ Union to celebrate their 155th birthday. They were showing some fascinating archive footage of the Union and gave me a very nice piece of birthday cake!

It is nice to see a week of celebrations on campus as we hold our winter degree ceremonies, which you can watch on the large screen on the back of the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons.

   

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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