Research and Impact @ Manchester (March 2026)
11 Mar 2026
A message from Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to our special edition of Research & Impact @ Manchester, focusing on our Research Communications Conference 2026.
Why is communicating your work so important? Firstly, you've worked hard on your research and now it has been published – what next? You want it to be read, cited and to have impact. We’re here to support you to make the most of this opportunity – to reach a range of audiences - both academic and research users such as charities, policymakers, businesses and the public. To put your work in front of the people who need to see it most. Promotion of your research can advance knowledge and accelerate impact, an essential part of our role as a university. We’re publicly-funded so it’s important we show the UK what we are doing – and that we are a trusted source of knowledge.
As our colleague, Jo Pennock perfectly put it: the research isn’t done until it has been communicated. Until the right people know about your work, it won’t have all the impact it could have. So please discover more about the conference and the online resources to support you to promote your research.
Our support for your research has been extended with our new Horizon Europe Support Fund, our Research Committee’s first new investment towards the delivery of From Manchester, for the world. This new fund complements our other internal research strategy investment for pump-priming interdisciplinary research , including a new fund focussed on curiosity-driven research.
There’s also new major support for the whole of our University community, including researchers, postgraduate students and research-related PS colleagues, with our MS Copilot licence and training for all of our 65,000 colleagues and students. While we are all on different points of the pathway when it comes to using AI, I think Caroline Jay said it best at our recent Townhall: “There is a new world out there which we are slowly coming to terms with – but it’s changing rapidly – and it feels like we’re a community that is able to deal with that together; reap the benefits of that but also tackle those challenges together.”
From Manchester for the world
The delivery of our new strategy continues at pace, not only with those Research Committee’s investments, but with new leadership appointments to help us progress towards becoming a great civic university for the 21st century, creating knowledge for the public good, locally and globally and the start of work on a new innovation hub at the heart of our campus. In addition, our public engagement delivers our strategy foundation of being values-led and socially responsible – as well as being a rewarding and enjoyable way of communicating your work – so I would recommend those who are interested attend the Social Responsibility open session led by our experienced and inspiring colleague, Professor Stephanie Snow.
Your Voice Matters
Our Colleague Engagement Survey launched yesterday (Tuesday, 10 March) and will run until Tuesday, 31 March. The survey is an important way for all colleagues to share how engaged they feel in the work they do, what they value most about working here and where things could, and should, be better. So please be open and honest and tell us what’s working and what isn’t.
This year our Research community is being asked to complete some additional questions to help us develop our action plan for the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
Your responses are invaluable – in ways that will directly affect our Research community and in ways that are essential to the wider University. We used your feedback from the 2025 survey to shape our Manchester 2035 strategy and more than 400 local and University-wide actions are underway. So please do get involved – you will make a difference.
Finally…
I was delighted to attend a UKRI award event at the British Embassy, Washington, as part of a Russell Group delegation visit to meet with USA universities and research funders. Professors Bruce Grieve and Hujun Yin's team was one of a small number awarded the new Pioneering UK-US Breakthroughs (PUB) award, and I was proud to see their work at our University recognised and celebrated by the Washington audience.
Colette