Celebrating 10 years of the Making a Difference awards where the inspiring social responsibility achievements of our staff, students, alumni and external partners are recognised. Our social responsibility activity spans everything from research, teaching, working with external partners and our University operations.  

The Awards highlight the extensive range of social responsibility initiatives of our University community and includes categories such as benefit to society through research; widening participation; environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Over 120 entries were submitted this year with judges recognising 17 winners and 22 highly commended. Winners include a project providing young care experienced people with a memorable Christmas Day experience; an engagement initiative democratising music education by removing socio-economic barriers and a project developing the world’s first bedside genetic test to prevent babies from going deaf. Winning student-led initiatives include a project addressing education, health, economic and environmental problems in Indonesia and a project aiming to increase the diversity of student participation in STEM-based subjects.

The Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health faired very well, securing four winners and seven highly recommended awards. Our winners included:

Outstanding Benefit to Society through Research – Gindo Tampubolon, Prof. Delvac Oceandy and Dr. Asri Maharani
for a cross Faculty project alongside the Faculty of Humanities – Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and Death using mobile technology in Indonesia (SMARThealth) 

Outstanding Benefit to Society through Research – Emerging Impact – Bill Newman and members of the PALOH study team for the World-first bedside genetic test to prevent babies going deaf 

Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – Matthew Sinton, Dr Juan Quintana and Dr Alex Cocker for The STEM Village 

Outstanding Contribution to Widening Participation – Dr David Allison and Ray Skwierczynski for Celebrating 10 years of a bespoke Widening Participation undergraduate programme  

During the event a special Making a Difference Award for social responsibility leadership was presented to the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Nancy Rothwell, recognising her outstanding leadership contribution to the whole social responsibility agenda.

During the ceremony we also took a moment to present a posthumous award to an exceptional alumna, Laura Nuttall, who sadly passed away shortly after graduating in 2023. Laura made an exceptional impact on the world with her awareness-raising and fundraising campaigns for brain tumor research and her family were in attendance to receive the award.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement, said: “The Making a Difference Awards allows us to celebrate some of the best work that our staff, students, alumni and partners do each year to enhance the wellbeing of society and the environment.”

Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility concluded: “It was a wonderful experience to be involved in an event that recognises the inspiring work that our staff, students, alumni and partners are involved in. With celebrating 200 years of making a difference, the Awards have, once again, shown how the unique abilities and resources of universities can create positive change in wider society through research, innovation, and most importantly our people.”

For further information:

• See the full list of all our  2024 winners and highly commended
• Watch our winners’ films
• Watch the Award ceremony

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