President's weekly update
5 October 2023
Regional issues and activities, including HS2
The Prime Minister announced that the Manchester leg of HS2 will be cancelled. This news was met with serious concern for our city region. I spoke on the BBC World at One about why I felt it was so disappointing. The rising costs are a major concern but its unfortunate that for many, the benefits have focused only on speed and passenger travel. But this was a critical infrastructure project which would take freight off the roads and bring significant economic and social benefit to the north. It aimed to replace the West Coast line that will begin to fail and we will have no direct train line south as it is replaced over many years.
As part of our ongoing public engagement work, I spoke on behalf of the Royal Society at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference, along with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan. I talked about the value of science and innovation to society and the economy, the importance of stable, long-term policies and funding and the Royal Society’s ongoing work on science and related subjects in the future - 2040. I also urged more policies and funding to stimulate collaboration between universities, research institutes and industry and gave the example of the Royce, the UK National Institute for Advanced Materials which we host.
I met Stephen Cochrane who is the Partnership Director for the Oxford Road Corridor (ORC) Board, who updated me on recent and planned activities, including executive committees on place and culture, the Greater Manchester (GM) bid for an Investment Zone and the regional economic strategy.
Host for THE prestigious World Academic Summit in 2024
The THE World Academic Summit for 2023 was held in Sydney last week. You may have seen the announcement that we will host the event next year in September 2024, focused on ‘Making a difference - the purpose of universities in a rapidly changing world’. This is an important part of our bicentenary year as it is normally attended by many vice-chancellors, senior academic leaders and experts in universities from around the world.
Successful move into the Paterson Research Building
At the Board that has overseen the construction of the new Paterson Building on The Christie site, we heard that staff have now moved in, and love the new building. We are planning the formal opening and considering how we recognise the many generous donors who made the new building possible.
Innovation
At the Health Innovation Manchester Board we received a very helpful and detailed report on regional and national strengths in life sciences industries which is growing rapidly. We discussed areas of particular opportunity for us and suggested genomics (given the move of UK Biobank), digital health and the ability to conduct trials across GM because of the devolved health budget and biomaterials. We also discussed secure health data and an ongoing review of innovation in the NHS.
I met Tony Raven, one of our new Board members to discuss our progress and opportunities in innovation across the University. Tony has extensive experience of innovation from his many years working in Cambridge.
Fundraising campaign
Our campaign will not be formally launched for a while. But a great deal of work is already ongoing. I met a representative of the company which is helping us with the branding and marketing. He wanted to know what the word he had heard quite often, ‘Manchesterness’ meant. I did my best to explain….open, friendly, collaborative, immensely proud of their city region and up for challenges!
I also had a number of meetings with some of our most senior supporters and donors to discuss our vision for the campaign and what we hope to achieve, and to gain their insights, given that all have been extremely successful in their own careers. All noted the great success of the University and their pride in being associated with us.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor