The Better World Awards 2020
12 Feb 2020
The Better World Awards celebrate the social responsibility achievements from the Faculty of Science and Engineering
The Better World Awards, the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s social responsibility awards, took place on Thursday 6 February in the Great Hall. The event celebrated staff and students who are ‘making a difference’ through projects which benefit society or the environment.
The event was hosted by Professor Paul Mativenga, Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility, who praised the number and variety of projects and the commitment of those involved to social responsibility. Many of the judges who presented the awards commented on the high quality of the 39 nominations and how difficult this made the judging process. As a result a number of projects were highly commended in addition to those who won the award in each of the 11 categories. In total 21 outstanding projects were recognised.
The winners in each category are:
| Outstanding public engagement initiative (UK project) | Take a Bite out of Climate Change team |
| Outstanding benefit to society through research | Helena Herrmann |
| Outstanding community engagement initiative participation | Nick Weise |
| Outstanding contribution to environmental sustainability (staff) | Teresa Anderson and Tim O'Brien |
| Outstanding contribution to environmental sustainability (student) | Mathieu Augustin |
| Outstanding contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion (staff) | Jess Boland |
| Outstanding contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion (student) | Ann Njeri |
| Outstanding contribution to widening participation (individual) | Perpetual Idehen |
| Outstanding contribution to widening participation (team) | Great Science Share for Schools team |
| Outstanding contribution to widening participation (team) | Rob Appleby and the Tactile Collider Team |
| Outstanding professional support services support for social responsibility | Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub (SEERIH) |
| Outstanding teaching and learning innovation in social responsibility | Laurence Stamford |
| Outstanding volunteer (student) | UMPO ( University of Manchester Physics Outreach) team |
Nominees who were highly commended are:
| Outstanding contribution to environmental sustainability | Plant and Hope team |
| Outstanding contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion (staff) | Rachael Ainsworth |
| Outstanding contribution to social enterprise | Danny Dresner |
| Outstanding professional support services support for social responsibility | CEAS Head of Department Office |
| Outstanding public engagement initiative (international project) | Saralees Nadarajah, Martin Wiegand and Christian Kindermann |
| Outstanding public engagement initiative (international project) | Project Malawi team |
| Outstanding volunteer (staff) | Natalie Parish |
Staff, students and the wider public also had their say on their favourite nomination through the Emerging Impact award, with the winner decided through a twitter poll which was also awarded at the celebration event. Abdullatif Alfutimie was recognised for their involvement in the Manchester based charity Rethink Rebuild, supporting and championing refugees since 2011, working to improve the economic and social wellbeing of immigrants from Syria and around the world.
Those attending the event enjoyed a vegan afternoon tea, and were entertained by the brilliant Faculty of Science and Engineering choir who performed for this faculty celebration. All leftover food was collected and redistributed by Mathieu Augustin, a student winner of the environmental sustainability category for his leadership in creating a staff/student network to redistribute leftover food waste from campus.
Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees and thank you for ‘making a difference’. Many of the nominees in the Better World Awards have been put forward for the University’s Making a Difference Awards and we wish them lots of luck in this process!
You can view all of the projects nominated in the Better World Awards online.