Teaching excellence in action: Dr Alison Harvey’s award‑winning practice
17 Mar 2026
To Dr Alison Harvey, excellence in teaching lies in helping students develop a strong sense of responsibility in their roles as researchers and professionals.
A Senior Teaching & Scholarship Lecturer in Materials Science in the School of Natural Sciences, Alison was recognised last year with a Teaching Excellence Award for her sustained and thoughtful contribution to teaching Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).
Alison joined the University of Manchester in her current role in 2019, although her relationship with Manchester goes back much further — as an undergraduate student, PhD researcher and postdoctoral researcher. Her academic background in Biomedical Materials Science continues to shape a teaching approach that bridges rigorous scientific training with essential social and ethical perspectives.
From teaching challenge to scholarship
Alison’s award‑winning work grew from a practical teaching challenge. When she joined the University, she was asked to design and deliver a bespoke RRI unit for the Advanced Biomedical Materials Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT).
In its first year, Alison identified key challenges - particularly around how social science concepts were taught to science and engineering students, and how students could meaningfully apply RRI principles as they moved into active research careers.
Rather than treating this as a one‑off curriculum fix, Alison made the unit the focus of her Teaching and Scholarship practice, developing it iteratively through reflection, student feedback, professional development, and engagement with best practice in RRI and higher education pedagogy.
The result has been a highly valued and innovative unit, praised by students and adapted into a one‑day workshop for another CDT. Graduates of the unit have gone on to act as RRI Champions within their own research areas at both the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield. Alison’s work has also generated wider impact through national teaching and learning conferences and publications, shaping how RRI is taught beyond Manchester.
Alison’s Teaching Excellence Award recognised more than a single course - it celebrated six years of thoughtful, evidence‑led development that connects teaching innovation, scholarship, and real‑world impact.
Looking ahead, the team is now exploring how the RRI teaching materials might be shared more widely to support staff training for RRI in grant applications, extending the benefit of this work across disciplines.
Recognition and reflection
“It really was an honour to be recognised at the awards,” Alison says. “Especially alongside such valuable and outstanding work being celebrated by other award winners. The recognition helped me see how valuable this work is - and has given me confidence in my ability to have an impact.”
What’s next?
Alison’s focus now is on spreading good practice. A strong advocate for realistic, achievable teaching innovation, she is currently working with colleagues in the Faculty of Science and Engineering on an inclusive teaching practice initiative aimed at all teaching staff.
“We need innovation in teaching for excellence,” she explains, “but we also need to ensure good practice spreads sideways - bringing all teaching at the University forward, together.”