A powerhouse of innovation
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Hi everyone and welcome to this special
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Manchester 2035 podcast on becoming a
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Powerhouse of Innovation I'm joined
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today by Richard Aileen and Gabrielle
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and we are going to take a look inside
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the Sprint group see what discussion
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were happening and um what Big Ideas are
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coming out of the Sprint so I'm first
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going to ask our wonderful panel to
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introduce themselves so I'll start with
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Richard hi I'm Richard Jones I'm vice
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president for regional Innovation and
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Civic engagement and uh with Carol our
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CFO I was leading this this particular
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Sprint group thanks Richard aen hi I'm
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aen Miller I'm a professor in science
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and engineering and I wear various
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Innovation hats across the university my
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main one is Chief scientific officer of
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unit M which is the new University
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Innovation initiative I'm also associate
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Dean for business engagement and
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Innovation within science and
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engineering faculty and run the
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innovation academy uh and also lead on
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the industrial biotechnology Innovation
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Catalyst fabulous thank you so much had
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so many
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hats
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Innovation fabulous be hard to follow
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that Gabrielle of course Gabriel I'm the
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exec officer for the faculty of biology
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medicine and health so I work for the
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Student Union and I was elected by the
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students to represent um students within
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that faculty so everyone who studies
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medicine Dentistry biology all the fun
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ones thanks so much so let's let's Jump
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Right In with the kind of key question
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um can you tell me about the focus of
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your Sprint yeah so what we were trying
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to think about is what would make the
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university more have a greater impact be
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more uh uh have a greater positive
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impact on the community that we live in
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the communities that we serve
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our regional economy so it's about
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innovation in a broad sense but you know
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obviously people don't always know what
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we mean by Innovation it's about how we
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translate the research we do and the
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talents that we have into the benefit of
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Greater Manchester and The Wider region
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brilliant and over the coming weeks our
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colleagues uh students and wider
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Community are going to hear a lot about
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leaps so those are kind of the big ideas
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that will make our University really
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Stand Out by 2035 so can you tell me
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more about kind of the leap that's
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associated with your Sprint and also why
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the themes might look slightly different
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than they did in phase one of the
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strategy yeah so the really the premise
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of this leap is to ask ourselves can we
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make the university really distinctive
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you know both on a national level but
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also on a global level as a place that's
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got a particularly powerful approach to
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Innovation and this kind of emerged in
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the phase one process we heard a lot
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from people about how you know they it
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really mattered to people that the
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research that we were doing and the work
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that was going on in the University went
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out into the world and made a difference
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in the world and that can happen in
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different ways it can happen you know in
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the kind of commercialization way
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through people forming companies it can
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also happen by students forming
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companies I think a really big change
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that's happened you know since we
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started thinking about it in the summer
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is realizing that you know our student
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body is fantastic a huge reservoir of
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great talent and how we could bring that
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together with our our faculty and our
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and our staff and see how we could work
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together to make something really
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distinctive about being a university
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that really makes an impact on its
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region and The Wider World in a very
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distinctive and Powerful way a thank you
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Richard so you spoke a lot there about
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kind of students and the role that they
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can play in Innovation so turning to you
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Gabrielle what what made the Sprint so
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interesting from a student perspective
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um I guess from a student perspective
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the entrepreneurship training is quite
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interesting um I feel that's fairly new
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in the University space um don't know if
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you have anymore so I think that's
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really interesting and the
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entrepreneurship side because when I
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went for a job 20 years ago it was sort
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of the corporates that you there would
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be the automatic routine but now the
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sort of demographic of job opportunities
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is from sort of micro company through to
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to corporate and the training that
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students can get through for example the
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massud entrepreneurship Center really
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gets them ready to think about business
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uh uh Acumen thinking about how they can
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make a difference from taking their
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science engineering medicine uh skills
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that they've learned through their
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degree but applying it in a business
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setting so it opens up job opportunities
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for them but also thinking about
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research students to really make an
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impact and get their research out there
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to the wider world the training and the
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opportunities available to them to
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create a startup company through for
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example the researcher to innovator
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program where they hone their business
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pitch from their idea uh really helps
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accelerate their career prospects as
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well as open up new innovation
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opportunities across our region and
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nationally so I guess picking up there
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and kind of reflecting on your leap why
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is it so essential that we move into
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this direction by 2035
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well I think it it really reflects the
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you know the nature of the world we're
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in now Manchester as a city you know in
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subways it's it's doing quite well but
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it's still you you know as an economy
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it's less productive than than the
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national average and that kind of
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translates directly into people's lives
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in Greater Manchester you know that's
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why you know wages aren't high enough
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people you know we have lots of social
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problems around housing lots of problems
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around uh Health inequalities so the I
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think the state that the country is in
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really demands us to think what do we do
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as you know big institutions funded by
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the public to a large extent you know
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what are we doing to to Really address
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these quite big problems that we're
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facing both nationally and regionally
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and in the city and then I guess on the
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flip side so if we get this right so we
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become a really value creating and
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inclusive Innovation ecosystem in
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Greater Manchester and we accelerate the
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kind of pipeline from ideas to
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impact what what happens when we get it
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right what are the benefits to the
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region the country individual people
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there's an interesting point about
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inclusive and that's something that
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really came through in the uh in all the
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consultations that we have that people
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really it was important to people that
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the work that we did as a university had
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benefits that spread very widely because
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if we look across the world you know we
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we we places that are very Innovative
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but they're also quite unequal so you
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know if you think of California as being
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a you know very Innovative economy
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Silicon Valley is a very Innovative
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economy nonetheless you know San
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Francisco is a very very unequal City
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and so I think there's a real sense that
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we'd want to think of a different way of
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doing Innovation that brought everybody
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along with us so I think that's been a
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really interesting and Powerful theme
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that I think is going to be really
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important for us to develop aen could
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you tell me a bit more about how how the
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feedback that was collected through you
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know sort of 20 plus workshops loads of
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online comments in Phase One how that's
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filtered through into your
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Sprint yeah so we've done and talked to
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a number of different colleagues uh from
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all kind of corners of the University I
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think having student input on these
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things is really important um like
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making sure that students are involved
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throughout like conception to like
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running the actual Sprint yeah yeah and
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getting the Buy in but I think it's
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important to say that it's not a closed
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shop now uh you know last week we ran
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two discussion groups on the on the uh
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leap and if people have got input or
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feedback or ideas then I think it's a
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continuous process and I think like a
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business idea you've got to do that
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design make test cycle so these things
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always evolve so yeah open for further
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ideas yeah and I think this is so
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important to mention that this is an
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ongoing discussion so just bring me in a
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bit more about like what's been coming
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up you you know where there have there
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been any challenges any any areas where
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you think well it would be great to do
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this but also to do this but they're not
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quite compatible you know are there any
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any notable tradeoffs you can tell us
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about I think one of the things that we
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keep hearing couple of things challenges
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it's like you know you're asking us to
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do more it's like perhaps not more it's
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maybe just a shift of focus or it's not
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everything at the same time so you might
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build on that Foundation of really
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strong research and then switch your
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focus to deliver refering that out to
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the outside world um so it's just
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understanding uh the balance and making
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sure that Innovation is rewarded um
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within promotion recognizing the work
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that people do on the area one of the
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other challenges that people talk about
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a lot is uh kind of the flexibility the
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agility the time scales uh for
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delivering Innovation because if you're
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working with a business you know
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businesses always have a challenge and a
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problem that we're trying to solve but
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they need the solution yesterday um so
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it's making sure that we have all the
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processes and procedures uh internally
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set up to really enable that um so we've
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been listening to challenges that
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colleagues have been having and
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experiencing and we're hoping to address
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those through the lead so in terms then
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of you know you're having these
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discussion discussions in the Sprint
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group and one of the outcomes of those
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discussions are kind of like a few
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really big innovative ideas that will
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help us to kind of achieve that leap
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goal so becoming a Powerhouse of
0:09:57.959,0:10:03.640
innovation so I'm really excited to hear
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can you give us a bit of an insight into
0:10:03.640,0:10:08.279
what those big ideas are that are
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emerging so for me I think that I'm most
0:10:08.279,0:10:12.640
excited about is the fact that the
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university is really ready to embrace
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Innovation so we can from the ground up
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encourage students and staff to think
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about this um and enable them and hold
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their hand effectively uh to FastTrack
0:10:22.320,0:10:27.040
their ideas and and their activity to go
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out to the wider world but at the same
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time we're working with our regional
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government or national government as
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well but Manchester and greater
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Manchester have got the space to scale
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companies so the investment Zone uh in
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our area is a materials and advanced
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manufacturing so we've got the space to
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have uh uh manufacturing companies
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within our region to go from the five
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employees to the 500 so how can we bring
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that activity closer to the university
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so then we can start to join the two up
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and I think that's the real opportunity
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through the 2035 strategy Gabrielle so
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from a student perspective you know from
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these ideas that are coming out of the
0:11:03.160,0:11:07.200
Sprint what kind of excites you most
0:11:05.200,0:11:09.040
about that yeah I think the thing that's
0:11:07.200,0:11:12.440
out to me is the collaboration with
0:11:09.040,0:11:14.839
Manchester City Council um I think as a
0:11:12.440,0:11:16.800
university we're very embedded in the
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city and I think a lot of students come
0:11:16.800,0:11:23.959
to Manchester because of the city um and
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like where we are and what we do so I
0:11:23.959,0:11:29.360
believe that like working with them to
0:11:26.519,0:11:31.560
improve the city will like really have a
0:11:29.360,0:11:33.519
massive impact on students and really
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encourag them to stay in Manchester
0:11:33.519,0:11:38.040
afterwards cuz surely that's what people
0:11:35.839,0:11:39.880
want as well we students to stay in the
0:11:38.040,0:11:41.959
city that they went to University in and
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I definitely want to stay in Manchester
0:11:41.959,0:11:48.519
after yeah like after I graduated so
0:11:45.839,0:11:49.959
yeah I think it's really important oh
0:11:48.519,0:11:52.480
that's great to hear and I hope I hope
0:11:49.959,0:11:55.720
you do St Manchester
0:11:52.480,0:11:57.800
yeah so I guess the question now is
0:11:55.720,0:11:59.600
you've you've kind of put together these
0:11:57.800,0:12:02.200
these big ideas and Sprint groups that
0:11:59.600,0:12:05.680
could take us where we need to be by
0:12:02.200,0:12:07.639
2035 but what happens next so are these
0:12:05.680,0:12:09.680
kind of the final proposals does the
0:12:07.639,0:12:11.920
conversation keep going just tell me a
0:12:09.680,0:12:14.440
little bit more about where where we are
0:12:11.920,0:12:16.240
in the process well I think the the
0:12:14.440,0:12:19.199
conversation absolutely will keep going
0:12:16.240,0:12:21.560
I so so we've you know the the Sprint as
0:12:19.199,0:12:23.560
as its name suggests you know we want to
0:12:21.560,0:12:26.480
work very hard to get some concrete
0:12:23.560,0:12:28.120
proposals together that's then in a
0:12:26.480,0:12:30.199
state where people can then come and
0:12:28.120,0:12:32.240
criticize them and comment in them and
0:12:30.199,0:12:34.240
add to them I think a big important
0:12:32.240,0:12:36.760
thing is actually going to be joining up
0:12:34.240,0:12:38.880
the different Sprints as it were so we
0:12:36.760,0:12:41.440
can already see you know the Innovation
0:12:38.880,0:12:44.480
Powerhouse of innovation it's got to be
0:12:41.440,0:12:46.079
related to the the the the impact of our
0:12:44.480,0:12:48.279
research Sprint because obviously the
0:12:46.079,0:12:50.839
research is you one of the foundations
0:12:48.279,0:12:53.320
that's got to relate to the the one
0:12:50.839,0:12:55.480
about lifelong learning teaching and and
0:12:53.320,0:12:57.680
learning and how we incorporate
0:12:55.480,0:13:00.199
entrepreneurship into the uh into the
0:12:57.680,0:13:02.920
curriculum how we make that enrich our
0:13:00.199,0:13:04.440
students experience here and there's you
0:13:02.920,0:13:06.199
know those underpinning foundations
0:13:04.440,0:13:08.240
there are there's some basic stuff the
0:13:06.199,0:13:09.720
University's got to get right that if we
0:13:08.240,0:13:12.000
don't get right we won't get any of list
0:13:09.720,0:13:15.079
to work so I think it's a it's going to
0:13:12.000,0:13:18.320
be a process of refinement a process of
0:13:15.079,0:13:20.160
you know joining up uh so it's going to
0:13:18.320,0:13:22.160
be an interesting time to see where we
0:13:20.160,0:13:24.800
where this goes next I
0:13:22.160,0:13:26.839
think from the 31st of March we are
0:13:24.800,0:13:29.639
going to be in Nancy Rothwell building
0:13:26.839,0:13:31.680
with a popup exhibition where people can
0:13:29.639,0:13:33.839
discover all the Big Ideas coming out of
0:13:31.680,0:13:35.600
the various Sprint groups and also see
0:13:33.839,0:13:37.519
how they kind of work together and how
0:13:35.600,0:13:39.680
they're crosscutting but also going to
0:13:37.519,0:13:41.800
have a really great digital platform
0:13:39.680,0:13:43.560
that people can use to feed in so they
0:13:41.800,0:13:45.360
can't make it in person though ideally
0:13:43.560,0:13:47.320
we want them to do both there will be a
0:13:45.360,0:13:49.160
digital feedback mechanism as well so
0:13:47.320,0:13:50.839
we're really Keen that as many people as
0:13:49.160,0:13:55.480
possible come along whether that's staff
0:13:50.839,0:13:55.480
students or a wider community members
