Making the leap: Accelerating the path from research excellence to impact<\/h2>\n
We come to this from different disciplines \u2013 sociology and human-centred engineering \u2013 but we share the same aim: make Manchester the best place in the UK to do ambitious, inclusive research with faster impact. Whatever you are working on, the conditions that help are the same \u2013 time for discovery, simple ways to collaborate, trusted data and tools, and partners who can help ideas to develop and travel.<\/p>\n
Curiosity to change \u2013 at scale<\/h2>\n
Our leap is rooted in a commitment to organise ourselves around research challenges, beyond disciplines. We are building on strong foundations. We have a world class record of research excellence and impact which is recognised in global rankings and the UK\u2019s Research Excellence Framework. But we want to be better. We will supercharge our platforms in creative, digital, environment and health<\/a> to drive large-scale progress in research, innovation and teaching. By uniting our people and partners, these platforms will tackle urgent questions, turning ideas into impactful solutions while ensuring academic freedom. They will also strengthen links between research and teaching, enhancing student experience through curriculum development, challenge-led teaching, and new opportunities with Manchester Online, such as micro-credentials and summer schools – with Unit M<\/a> serving as the gateway for partners, ensuring our research benefits civic and employer needs. Our focus on organising research and innovation around key challenges extends beyond these platforms. Our institutes, centres and groups, with their longstanding partner relationships, will remain at the forefront of research. They will work with platforms to showcase our strengths, and, by building on what works, we will foster new challenges, collaborations and innovations across the University. As was emphasised in the announcement of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technologies allocation of R&D funding to 2029\/30<\/a>, curiosity-led, foundational research is critical for the delivery of future discovery, insight and invention. We will ensure that our strengths in curiosity-led research are more visible, communicated, supported and connected alongside those of challenge-led research.<\/p>\n From Manchester for the world, our new University strategy to 2035 has five leaps \u2013 bold choices where we\u2019ll go further and faster to become the university the future demands. We challenged our students to explain each in just one minute. Can they beat the clock?<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Colleagues were clear in the consultations about the research environment and culture that they need to do their best work: time to focus on research and innovation, investment in physical and digital infrastructure, efficient and time-saving administrative systems, and a culture which supports people and values team collaboration. We agree. We are dedicated to creating a well-structured, collaborative and inclusive research environment. Progress includes the Research Culture and Environment framework<\/a>, enhanced professional services, upgraded IT and facilities, and the recruitment of 200 Bicentennial postgraduate researchers and fellows. While our facilities are among the best in the UK, further investment is needed to streamline systems and boost efficiency. We will invest further through the University\u2019s From Manchester for the world<\/em> strategic commitment to be \u2018organised for success<\/a>\u2019 by streamlining systems, reducing bureaucracy and improving support so that all colleagues, student and partners can do their best work. Our \u2018Digital Inside and Out\u2019 Leap features the AI Skunkworks, providing a space to co-design responsible AI usage, alongside ongoing investment in research IT infrastructure. Accelerating our pathway to innovation is underway with the launch of Unit M<\/a>, offering partners a single point of collaboration, and initiatives like the Innovation Accelerator help scale real-world solutions with the NHS and industry. As part of the expanding innovation ecosystem, we will continue to develop our impact enabled by our professional business engagement, public engagement, knowledge exchange and impact teams. A key example is Policy@Manchester<\/a>, which connects research with policymakers. Alongside these investments we will work with colleagues to devise ways of working that release time for research and which help to build and sustain collaborative and inclusive research teams. Our approach is people-centred and values-led \u2013 grounded in academic freedom with clearer career pathways and fairer recognition for the contribution of all team members.<\/p>\n Manchester 2035 is a ten-year strategy, with the first three years focused on building upon existing research excellence and enhancing the research environment and innovation ecosystem. The initial priority is to amplify the impact of teams already making a difference. The plan also aims to unite areas of untapped potential across schools and faculties. We will work with the platforms, institutes and schools to identify areas of potential intersection between research teams, listening to colleagues about their ideas for areas where, through convening and collaborating, we can make the whole greater than the sum of the parts, and deliver more impact by bringing different disciplines and teams together. Challenge areas will be defined for curiosity- and challenge-led research, with open competitions for teams to accelerate progress. Our platforms and institutes work will evolve through the ten-year strategy to enable this focus on research challenges, collaborations and acceleration of impact. This includes the expanded platform remit to work more closely with the teaching, learning and students\u2019 teams to deepen the connections between our research and teaching to enhance our students\u2019 learning. This work will commence in the first phase of the plan.<\/p>\n What will research excellence with impact feel like in 2035? Success will be visible to everyone. Our researchers can access world class facilities and work in an environment with leading digital resources and efficient unobtrusive administrative systems. Our platforms and institutes enable them to come together easily in teams and move from idea to prototype with clear support, and without feeling like practicalities are getting in the way \u2013 setting the agenda in their field. This environment frees up time and makes it easier to focus on what matters. Team collaboration is the norm. The contribution of all team members – including technicians, methodologists, postdoctoral researchers, innovation specialists \u2013 is recognised and rewarded through clear pathways for career progression. Postgraduate researchers have an inspiring experience preparing their thesis, providing a springboard into employment, with many in research and innovation functions across different sectors of the economy. Students value how research enriches their learning and have more opportunities to contribute, for example through research projects and placements. And strategic partners experience us as one university with a clear front door, joined-up teams and students embedded in projects \u2013 and choose to work with us because collaboration feels easy and ambitious.<\/p>\n One question to discuss:<\/strong> What single change would most accelerate your path from research to impact<\/p>\n \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":" This piece explains how our 2035 strategy aims to make Manchester the best place in the UK to do ambitious, inclusive research with faster impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":4141,"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":[20,21,19,39,32,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-of-biology-medicine-and-health","category-faculty-of-humanities","category-faculty-of-science-and-engineering","category-manchester-2035","category-research","category-slt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081","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=4081"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4132,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions\/4132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/138\/2024\/12\/Leap-in-a-minute-yt-thumbnail-2-169x300.png\")
<\/a>Building on what we already do well<\/h2>\n
How we will phase the work<\/h2>\n
Imagining 2035<\/h2>\n
Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
April McMahon: Replacing Blackboard Learn with Canvas by Instructure<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Danielle George: Blended and flexible learning<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Hannah Rundle: Do Humanities matter?<\/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>