Three SEED projects featured in campaign highlighting impact of research and collaboration

19 Mar 2026

The University's new 'Research Impact, Shaped Together' campaign showcases the impact of our experts working with partners, communities and industry

Three of the ten projects being highlighted through the university's new research impact campaign are being worked on by colleagues from the School of Environment, Education and Development. The 'Research Impact, Shaped Together' campaign shares case studies which demonstrate how our academics form partnerships with the public sector, civil society groups and businesses to ensure their research drives positive change. 

The campaign highlights impact in five areas: team research, hyperlocal engagement, international collaboration, interdisciplinary research and innovation. 

Through the 'Restoring peatlands: teaming up to protect communities' an initial shared response to damaged peatlands slowly grew into a living lab where scientists, landowners and locals teamed up and exchanged expertise. The long-term partnership has brought together researchers from The University of Manchester, practitioners from the Moors for the Future Partnership, the Environment Agency, land managers and flood authorities; they have learned together on the moorlands, tested ideas and operated within the real constraints of the landscape. Dr Emma Shuttleworth (Geography) describes how that approach shaped the collaboration: “One of the reasons we work so well together is because we’re all pulling in the same direction. We might all be coming from slightly different angles, but ultimately, we all care about restoring damaged peatland environments.”

Find out more about 'Restoring peatlands'

The 'Building a unified approach to wildfires' project has brought together geographers, ecologists, firefighters, land managers and modellers to develop the UK’s first landscape-and fuel-specific models of fire behaviour. Wildfires in the UK have been growing in frequency and intensity, but practitioners have lacked reliable, UK‑specific evidence to guide prevention and emergency decision-making. Existing tools were based on non‑UK landscapes, leaving firefighters and land managers without models that reflected local fuels, weather patterns or landscapes. Prof Gareth Clay (Geography) explains: “Wildfire is too complex to be solved by a single discipline or institution, so we built the project around shared ownership. Practitioners were involved early to help shape the questions being asked and the decisions the research needed to support.” 

Find out more about 'Building a unified approach to wildfires' 

Through the 'Reimagining global giving through trust and partnership' project researchers and community partners have shaped funding mechanisms together from the start.Collaborating with people from diverse communities in the UK and Kenya, researchers built up strong evidence about why charity grant-giving often falls short of its long-term goals. Short‑term, tightly‑restricted funding too often pushes local organisations to chase projects and paperwork, rather than lead change on their own terms. In response to this, academics and community leaders came together to form One World Together, a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to providing small grants to trusted community partners and giving them flexibility to spend the money in a way which would most benefit their communities. Professor Nicola Banks explains: “Delivering impact through One World Together required a conscious decision to work differently – slowing down, sharing control and treating collaboration as integral to the research. That’s innovation for me: not a new device, but a way of working so society can flourish.”  

Find out more about 'Reimagining global giving through trust and partnership'

You can read more about the 'Research Impact, Shaped Together' campaign and explore all ten case studies here.