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Research and Business Engagement

Senate report – major awards and achievements

19 May 2026

Congratulations to our colleagues for the recent major achievements and major funding, reported in the latest Senate report (April 2026).

Research Funding Awards

  • Professor Rose Broad (School of Social Sciences) and an interdisciplinary research team have been awarded funding from the UKRI’s R&D Missions Accelerator programme to bring together researchers, practitioners and policymakers and accelerate the UK’s efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.  
  • Dr Gina Galli (School of Medical Sciences) is leading the Connecting Hearts and Minds Consortium (CHAIN). Funded by the British Heart Foundation and delivered collaboratively by the University and the Universities of Bristol and Liverpool the programme will train PGRs to move beyond disciplinary boundaries and adopt integrated approaches to heart-brain health.   
  • Professor Joel Turner (School of Engineering) is leading a consortium of six universities and 22 industry partners which has secured a £9.6m UKRI Doctoral Focal Award for Skills and Training Underpinning a Renaissance in Nuclear (SATURN-2).    

Elected Fellows

  • Five colleagues have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of their significant contributions to social science. Congratulations to: Professor Elvira Uyarra (Alliance Manchester Business School); Professor Sam Hickey (School of Environment, Education and Development); Professor Lucy Frith (School of Social Sciences); Professor James Pattison (School of Social Sciences); and Professor Oliver Richmond (School of Social Sciences).   
  • Professor Rachel Griffith (School of Social Sciences) has been made a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society in recognition of her contribution to the discipline.   
  • Emeritus Professor Amanda Bamford (School of Biological Sciences) has been elected as a Fellow of The Linnean Society in recognition of her contribution to the study of the natural world.  
  • Dr Mingfei Sun (School of Engineering) has been appointed as one of the UK’s new cohort of AI Fellows. Delivered through the Alan Turing Institute the cohort will develop open source tools that tackle some of the biggest challenges facing public services.  

Recognition, Awards and Prizes

  • Five colleagues have received the prestigious award of NIHR Senior Investigator, a competitive award for the most outstanding and influential researchers. Congratulations to: Professor Sandr Bucci (School of Health Sciences); Professor Maya Buch (School of Biological Sciences); Professor Paul Dark (School of Biological Sciences); Professor Nusrat Husain (School of Health Sciences); and Professor Evan Kontopantelis (School of Health Sciences). 
  • Professors Bruce Grieve and Hujun Yin (both School of Natural Sciences) were presented with the UKRI Pioneering UK-US Breakthrough (PUB) Award at a ceremony at the UK Embassy in Washington for their research in developing a new device to detect crop viruses.  
  • Professor Philip McCann (Alliance Manchester Business School) has been awarded the Walter Isard Award for Scholarly Achievement in recognition of his sustained and influential contribution to regional science.  
  • Dr Emma Fairbanks (School of Natural Sciences) won the mathematics and computer science category of the L’Oreal UNESCO Women in Science Young Talent award for her work on modelling disease vectors and Dr Micaela Chacón (School of Natural Sciences) was highly commended in the sustainable development category for her work on exploring how to make bioproduction more efficient and sustainable. 
  • Dr Amy Benstead (School of Materials) has been appointed as a new member of the UK Young Academy, a network of early career researchers and emerging leaders in their respective fields.  

More to celebrate

Four Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health researchers – Sara Gago, Abigail Lay, Holly Lovegrove and Sara Federici – were selected for Springboard awards from the Academy of Medical Sciences, part of a £6.7m UK-wide investment in early career biomedical and health research. 

Colleagues and students inspired future researchers with British Science Week events at Manchester Museum and the Trafford Centre. 

And Honorary Research Fellow, Dr Dean Lomax was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, discussing his career: discovering dinosaurs and defying naysayers.