The Manchester 2035 Podcast

hi everyone and welcome to the special

Manchester 2035 podcast episode on

accelerating our research impact Beyond

Excellence I'm joined today by a

fabulous panel I've got Colette Caroline

and Adil and but I'll just ask you to

briefly introduce yourselves so I'll

start with kette thanks Jules so I'm

Colette Fagan I'm the vice president for

research working in Duncan's executive

team Fabulous Caroline hello I'm

Caroline Jay I'm head of research in the

School of Engineering and uh the human

centered design theme lead for digital

Futures thank you very much and Adil uh

hi uh I'm Adil Ashraf, I'm SU executive

officer for postgraduate research um so

elected by students to represent

students especially pgrs and I'm also

doing a PhD in civil and environmental

engineering brilliant thank you so much

so to kick things off not all of our

listeners will know what a Sprint group

is so Colette can you tell us a bit more

about what these Sprints are doing and

also what the focus of your Sprint was

okay so a Sprint is as it sounds it's

working at speed on a short period of

time uh so most of our work has run

through the month of

February um in the research group and

working with our school research

directors we anticipated some of this so

you might say we did a bit of a boot

camp Before Christmas where we had um uh

an informal lunch for my broader team

research strategy group and we had a

meeting with the school research

directors where we distilled what had

come out for first round of

consultations where the ideas seem to be

heading knowing that when we came back

after the uh Christmas break we'd

probably have to run which we have been

so over the coming weeks our colleagues

students and Community are also going to

hear a lot more about leaps so these are

kind of the big propositions coming out

of the Sprints so can you tell me a bit

more about the leap that your Sprint was

working on okay so the the metaphor of

leap is about transformative change and

a leap into another level of of activity

um and so what we've been doing is

focused on our research excellence and

the impact of our research which of

course connects through to some of the

other leaps around Innovation digital

strategy student experience but our

focus is on what are we already doing

well

what did we hear about in the

consultations about the things we are

doing well the things we need to do

better and where do we want to get to

and if I had to distill that into one

sentence um it is about our ability to

convene ambitious

interdisciplinary uh research

challenges address them and make sure

that feeds through quickly into impact

getting the ideas and the solutions out

into the world and Adel from a student

perspective um you're doing a PhD you

know what what kind of stood out to you

about the Sprint and the ideas that are

coming out yeah uh I think uh first of

all like involving students from the

very starting uh phase it was really

great I think it's a sector leading

because as a student also we think like

you know Manchester is something that's

attached to us so we really um sometimes

students can give some feedback so so

that's one thing so and um and secondly

on on the ideas that are coming that's

really uh great and ambitious and

hopefully you know we'll keep including

the students and you know like and these

ideas that will probably discuss uh In

Here Also they're really great ideas and

probably we have few challenges as well

as well and that we can um somehow you

know CER but yeah they are great ideas

and students are involved and you know

like students can be you know part of

this in the later stages as well

fabulous and Caroline could I bring you

in so kind of from from your perspective

what what are the biggest challenges

we're facing and why do we need this

leap I think this is really interesting

question so obviously part of this is

about being better connected uh in terms

of the external environment so making

sure that we're working with the right

partners and the right collaborators and

we're able to do that really effectively

but I think also we need to look

internally at some of the ways in which

we are doing our research at the moment

so one of the things that lots of people

are talking about and it's very exciting

and and particularly our earlier career

researchers are excited about is AI and

the potential that it has for both

transforming Society and also

transforming the way that we do research

as well so one of the things that we

discussed was you know how can we make

sure that we better connect up that real

kind of fundamental expertise we have in

this area in terms of AI people

developing these new technologies and

methods how can we connect that with the

rest of the research Community because I

think that gives us a a huge opportunity

to build really significant um research

projects and uh you know address

societal challenges and adio from your

perspective and I suppose draw growing

on your experiences um in your cohort um

of postgraduate researchers are there

specific challenges that that you and

your peers are experiencing that you you

think this leap could kind of really

help uh early career researchers and and

pgr students yeah uh I think yeah so for

example um we had really great ambitious

uh thing we have platforms and we have

centers institutes uh that are already

there and what we want to do is like

more uh you know utilize them and and go

beyond you know like to our excellence

and from PGI and early career

perspective you know like this is really

great because that can help us uh

involve in multidisciplinary and involve

with the people from other faculties

from other schools from other areas of

research so these are great ideas I I

would say and personally I think like uh

you know definitely there going to be

few challenges but that can be overcome

that's not like we cannot do it but uh

it's really not and not only important

for early careers and phds but uh we

have really ambitious goal to include

teaching and learning also so that we

can link research with that and you know

both can complement each other so it's a

great idea from pgr perspective from

early career perspective but I think

also from ugt and PGT students as well

so adal in terms of bringing student

perspectives into the Sprints can you

talk a little bit more about that yeah

uh so from the the very start when uh uh

this uh initiative started so students

are involved in every stage for example

we have workshops where students were

there then we have you know they can

submit their feedback on through the

website you know they can they can talk

with the for example Su representative

so so students are involved in the first

stage and now also like in the second

stage like uh we are like closely

working um in in these Sprint groups to

discuss these proposals and to give any

ideas that students have through us and

also now in the coming phases also it's

open so so so so anybody can still

contact us and anybody can still contact

me for example PG or like and they can

give their feedback or they can also go

to the Manchester 2035 uh website and

give their feedback there also thank you

so I guess this is now the bit that

loads of the people listening will be

most interested in and that is what are

the Big Ideas um within your kind of

area what's coming out of the Sprints

okay let let me start by trying to

summarize so it's it's one big idea but

there are elements within it but what

came out was okay how can we harness

what we do better and really get that

step change or

leap and we want to do this around our

existing research platforms which are

creative Manchester digital Futures uh

environmental sustainable Futures which

is the environment one and healthier

Futures so we already have four big

challenge areas where we have learned

through the development uh what what

works about building communities focused

alignment and connection internally as

well as of external Partners on key

issues and so our ambition is well what

if we what if we could really scale us

up what would we do here um so one is to

build on the uh development that's

started in terms of shaping curriculum

let me give you the example of the

environment because this is one of

adil's areas and I know it's of great

importance to a lot of our staff and

students so within the sustainable

Futures as well as research there's a

whole theme looking at how we shape

curriculum and student

experience um this is quite hard to

drive through in a university any

University change in curriculum and so

forth so we want to find a way of really

shaping and

accelerating that then we also our post

graduate level we have students in a

number of cdts or clusters working on

different bits of the environment and

the platforms know they exists the

students know they exist there is some

connection but what what else could we

do here around summer schools placements

some of the work that Adil was talking

about about bringing different cohorts

of students together to learn and share

perhaps develop different kinds of

postgraduate um research so that's what

we want to do with the platforms uh

they're tried and tested they've got so

much more potential if we scale up and

of course that also raises question of

well do we need another two or three on

different areas but we know at the

moment that for example around Health um

around environment around uh digital

we've already capturing about 300 plus

easily in each area so we're already

reaching a large amount of the research

and Innovation activity in the

University but if we can bring together

those who are working on recycling plas

PLC plastic waste in rivers how to

create sustainable production in

manufacturing how to enable consumers to

be responsible consumers how to take

more planes out of the sky think what we

can do for the world that's fantastic

and Caroline your area of expertise is

around AI so I was wondering if you

could kind of give an example around how

that might apply in the AI space so if

we think about digital Futures so this

was the original platform wasn't it was

the first first platform and really this

was about bringing together our

expertise in the area of sort of

computation computational research um

which we noticed was happening across

lots of different areas so digital

Futures cuts across as with all the

platforms cuts across the whole

university um is very diverse um and it

supports particular areas so we have um

let's think about the environment again

so we might we have environment as as a

theme within there um we have um the

Pankhurst Institute providing Health as

a theme um but also has these

cross-cutting capabilities as well so

data science and AI is one of those

human- centered design is another so

it's sort of thinking about how we

interface those kind of methods with uh

really key areas and of course it's all

about communication so this is you know

we connect people up using these

platforms and then we support uh we

support bid development we um you know

are able to disseminate opportunities so

the discussions that we're having at the

moment within digital Futures are sort

of how can we do this better what's

changed since we first put the platform

together what do we need to consider

next what's on the horizon how do we

work with these other platforms you know

how do we make sure we're interfacing

properly so lots of exciting discussions

happening in that area at the moment and

um I think some really great stuff's

going to come out of it yeah so I I

think like it's it's a as I said before

as well it's a great idea because I

personally know these platforms and

centers and institutes uh so even I was

thinking uh before Manchester 2035 I was

thinking how we can make these platforms

and institutes more better because in

the future as we discussed like the

collaborative research is going to be a

key you know like it's it's not like

because the fields are growing and you

know you maybe AI so we have we can use

AI nowadays like in climate change in

equity in in health sector so so these

platforms I think so it's really great

like how we can harness this platform to

the to the Limit like where we can do

and bring you know all not only uh

academics but also the students they can

come together for example as I mentioned

previously like ugts and pgts can also

come so that's what we are also now

proposing like they can also join

because uh maybe that can help them you

know in in in coming to the research and

and see like what kind of things are

going on so it's a great idea and

definitely it's a it it will come with

the challenge how we're going to do it

uh how we encourage the students

especially pgs and because early career

researcher maybe they will join but for

PG pgrs for PhD students for M students

I think so we have to work around like

how we'll encourage them to participate

in these platforms and that's also we

are proposing like we we will kind of

evaluate because previously I don't know

like if we have some evaluation

Factor their their performance how they

are going but now we are proposing where

we are going to you know like also

Monitor and and come up with maybe

perhaps some Metric like are they

performing really well are we achieving

what the what we were aiming so I think

so it's a really great proposal

personally I think and hopefully like PG

students will also like that amazing

thank you so for our staff students and

our wider Community what's next can they

you know how can they engage with the

proposals is this kind of the final idea

can can people still get

involved so there going to be a

university-wide next stage which um is

is similar for all the Sprints so um at

that stage we will be bringing back the

distilled idea of a proposition via

ambition uh for more discussion and and

feedback U but I think you know the plan

jws I do I set that one up L from the

31st of March we'll be in the Nancy

Rothwell building with a popup

exhibition so people can come along and

explore it'll be a physical space um but

then we've also got a digital platform

this is going to be a great opportunity

and as you said like it it's going to be

like at the open space so they can walk

through and they can just stop there and

check like what we are doing and it's

it's going to be a really great

opportunity and I'll encourage everyone

to uh participate in that from the 31st

of March we are going to be in Nancy

Rothwell building with a popup

exhibition where people can discover all

the Big Ideas coming out of the various

Sprint groups and also see how they kind

of work together and how they're

crosscutting we're also going to have a

really great digital platform that

people can use to feed in so they can't

make it in person though ideally we want

them to do both there will be a digital

feedback mechanism as well so we're

really Keen that as many people as

possible come along whether that's staff

students or a wider community members