President's Weekly Update

15 September 2016

We heard the fantastic news that Manchester has been awarded a National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre. The award of £28.5 million over five years was very close to our request of £30 million and makes it the largest centre outside the South-East. The winning bid was hosted by Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. It brings together clinical and research expertise from across health and academia, which is supported by the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC). This is a fantastic start to the new Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health which led our proposal.

This week we held a special meeting of the University’s Planning and Resources Committee (PRC) to review actions resulting from the Board of Governors’ Conference in March and to consider the sustainability of our future financial position, setting this in the context of our Manchester 2020 ambitions. We are developing plans for delivering a sustainable financial position which also allows us to make the necessary investments to achieve our ambitions. This will be an important area of focus over the coming academic year and is likely to require significant changes and some difficult choices will need to be made. I will share further developments with you over the coming weeks.

Professor Colin Bailey (Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor) also gave PRC an update on ongoing work to look at our position in league tables and comparison with other universities and on our international strategy.

You may have seen the announcement that Sir Howard Bernstein will retire as Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, sometime next year when his successor is appointed. While not unexpected, Howard’s retirement is a great disappointment because he has done so much for Manchester and the University. While he wishes to step down from what is an almost 24/7 job, he has indicated that he will continue to support Manchester’s future success.

I have just become President of the British Science Association (BSA) which aims to promote communication and dialogue on science with the wider public. I travelled to Swansea for the BSA’s Annual Science Festival to take part in a panel on commercialisation of research.  In addition I delivered the President’s lecture which was called: ‘What are universities for?’ and attended the dinner hosted by the Chair of the BSA, Lord David Willetts.

Professor Luke Georghiou (Vice-President for Research and Innovation) and I travelled to the headquarters of Siemens in Munich for the day to discuss our current partnerships with Siemens and potential future collaborations, particularly in areas of materials, power electronics, health and digital.

At the University’s Board Audit Committee we reviewed both our internal and external audits, considered major areas of risk, including around cybersecurity, and discussed inevitable risks as a result of Brexit.

Several of us have spent much time completing the Science and Innovation Audit for Greater Manchester and East Cheshire which describes the strengths in research and innovation in these areas, the opportunities for growth and our plans for major developments. This is now submitted to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (formerly BIS) for further discussion.

We held a further meeting to discuss the future of our North Campus after most activities are relocated to the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) by 2020 to consider how we can best benefit the University and the City.

I met Professor Andy Westwood, our Associate Vice-President for Policy and Public Affairs about developments in the government including building relationships with the many new ministers and senior civil servants and plans that are likely to affect universities such as the Higher Education White Paper. We also discussed future developments in Policy@Manchester of which Andy is co-director with Professor Diane Coyle.

You cannot have missed the many students arriving on campus for the international student pre-sessional week. Next week is formal ‘Welcome Week’ for all students. Please help any that are looking lost or confused and make them feel very welcome. I have got my ‘Ask Me’ badge out of the drawer again!

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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