[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
By Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n
We have a world-class record of research excellent and impact. Across our university community, our colleagues, students and partners are creating new knowledge, asking bold questions and working with partners to deliver outstanding research with purpose; namely to improve lives and address some of society\u2019s greatest challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our strategy, From Manchester, For the World<\/i>, sets an ambition for us to build on these strengths and define what a great university looks like for the 21st century. By 2035, we want to be known not only for outstanding research, but as the university that turns great research into public good, faster, more boldly and at greater scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, I am pleased to share our new Research Delivery Plan<\/a>, which sets out how we will begin turning that ambition into action.\u00a0<\/p>\n What the plan is<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n The Research Delivery Plan<\/a> is a roadmap for the first phase of our ten-year strategy, covering the next three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n It focuses our collective effort and investment on seven priorities:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These priorities are closely connected. Together, they are about creating the best possible conditions for great ideas and talented people to thrive; enabling them to build teams across disciplines and in partnership with other organisations, with the shared commitment to producing excellent research and ensuring that discoveries translate into impact which improves lives for our communities locally, nationally and internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n What we\u2019ve heard<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n We start from a position of real strength. Manchester has a world-class record of research excellence and impact, supported by exceptional academic, professional and technical colleagues, outstanding facilities and powerful partnerships. Our Research Institutes, centres, groups and Platforms connect expertise across disciplines and help us respond to opportunities and challenges at scale.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This plan has been shaped by colleagues across the University, including the ideas generated in the widespread consultation which informed the design of the M2035 strategy. The detail of the roadmap has been created by our Research Committee engaging with Faculty leadership teams, Research Institutes and Platforms, the Manchester Doctoral College and the teams leading our work on research culture, researcher development, infrastructure and facilities, innovation, teaching and student experience and international collaboration.\u00a0<\/p>\n The thread which runs through both the M2035 Strategy and the Research Delivery Plan is that succeeding in our ambition depends on connection. We must and need to make it easier for our people and ideas to come together, provide the right support at every career stage and work as one university while building on the distinctive strengths found across our disciplines and community.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is also why the Research Delivery Plan connects closely with our plans for International<\/a>, Innovation, and Teaching and Learning. Excellence in research does not happen in isolation. It enriches our students\u2019 education, fuels innovation, strengthens our partnerships and helps us make a greater contribution to society.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three things to remember<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan contains seven priorities linked by three key messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n What you\u2019ll see happening next<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n Work is already underway. The Delivery Plan highlights the initiatives that have already launched and signals the practical steps and pipeline developments that we will carry forward over the coming months as we bring more of the Research Delivery Plan to life across our community.\u00a0<\/p>\n This will include new and refreshed research funding schemes to help colleagues develop ambitious ideas and accelerate impact, build collaborations, and respond to emerging opportunities. Our Research Platforms will deepen their working with our Institutes to strengthen connections and collaborations to support excellent research, partnerships, accelerated impact and innovation and an enhanced student experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n You will also see further investment in our postgraduate researcher and Fellowship communities, with a focus on improving support, development and opportunities at key stages of research careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n An important area of work to enhance the quality of our research culture and environment will be the development of One Research Facility<\/a>, so that colleagues and their industry partners can make better use of the world-class specialist equipment, expertise and infrastructure available across the University.\u00a0<\/p>\n Together, these changes are about making it easier for our researchers, teams and partners to do their best work \u2014 and to turn great ideas into meaningful impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ways to get involved<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you conduct research, support researchers, teach our students, manage our facilities, build partnerships or enable the systems behind our work, you have a role to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n Please:\u00a0<\/p>\n Delivery must be a two-way conversation. The plan will continue to evolve as we learn, assess progress and respond to changes around us. Please share your questions, reflections and ideas in the comments below or email us directly at vp-research@manchester.ac.uk.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n More to come<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n Research<\/a> is the second of our Delivery Plans to be published, following International<\/a>. In the coming weeks, you will also see plans for Innovation and Teaching and Learning. Together, they will show how we will deliver From Manchester, For the World<\/i> in a connected, practical and ambitious way.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n This is an exciting moment for our research community. It is our opportunity to build on our outstanding foundations and shape what comes next. I am pleased to continue working with you to make it happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research\u00a0We have a world-class record of research excellent and impact. Across our university community, our colleagues, students and partners are creating new knowledge, asking bold questions and working with partners to deliver outstanding research with purpose; namely to improve lives and address some of society\u2019s greatest challenges.\u00a0Our strategy, From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":4241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,32,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-2035","category-research","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4246,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/4246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Fiona Devine and Patrick Hackett - Manchester 2035: Becoming one university\u202f<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Making the leap: Digital Inside and Out<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
From Manchester, For the World: turning our international ambition into action<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>