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President's Weekly Update

26 May 2016

I am a Board member of Manchester International Festival (MIF) which attracts over a quarter of a million attendees and is held every two years – next in July 2017. I attended an extended meeting this week at which we heard about plans for MIF 2017. We also heard about the planning of ‘Factory Manchester’. This amazing new cultural centre will be built next to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and will be the new home for MIF, although events will continue to be offered across the City, including on the streets.

I spoke at a conference called the ‘Business of Science’ at MOSI. I described our own numerous interactions with businesses, large and small, spin-out and start-up companies, student entrepreneurs and the intense interest in commercial development around graphene and other two-dimensional materials.

Professor Luke Georghiou (Vice-President for Research and Innovation) and I held a dinner for researchers to discuss: how we raise ambition and the quality of our research; where we should spend (inevitably limited) resource to enhance our research; whether we should be conducting any research that is known to be below ‘internationally excellent’ - if so, what and by whom; how we can get the best out of research partnerships with business and other collaborators/sponsors such as government, community, social and cultural organisations; and, with £1.5 billion of Research Councils’ funding earmarked for the Global Challenges Research Fund, how we can maximize our opportunity to engage with issues of relevance to developing countries.

In separate meetings with the Vice-Chancellors of Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, we talked about areas of collaboration, particularly in health research and education in relation to ‘Devo Manc’.

ESOF (EuroScience Open Forum) is now taking shape with over 1,000 people registered, most speakers agreed and the exhibition space filling up quickly. The opening on Sunday, 23 July will take place at Manchester Central, hosted by Professor Brian Cox. Sessions will cover almost all areas of science from leading researchers and ‘late-breaking science’ to opportunities for early career researchers. A highlight is likely to be the live interview of Sir Andre Geim by John Lloyd, the creator of TV series including ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’, ‘Spitting Image’, ‘Blackadder’ and ‘QI’.

Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students) and I had one of our regular meetings with Naa Acquah, General Secretary of our Students’ Union. Inevitably the main topic of discussion was the Government’s White paper and the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which the Students' Union is very concerned about.

It was a pleasure to meet one of our very successful alumni, Sir Ian Gibson, who visited the University and discussed the dramatic changes to the University and the City with me. Sir Ian is a businessman who has chaired or been on the boards of a number of Britain's largest companies, including Morrisons supermarkets and Trinity Mirror.

The past week has also been very busy with work on University budgets for the next academic year, preparation of our submission for Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility funding to the National Institute for Health Research and many discussions about the Government’s White Paper and Higher Education Bill, which were both published last week.

You may wish to see/listen to our annual Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture which is being held this evening. You can watch live or later at:

A reminder that the closing date for joint applications to the Manchester-Melbourne Research Fund is 17 June. We have great synergies with Melbourne across all Faculties and this fund will strengthen our strategic partnership. All details are at:

      

      

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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Please send comments to: president@manchester.ac.uk