Environment submissions database

The University has worked extremely hard, within appropriate external guidelines, to continue to deliver high quality, impactful research and PGR student supervision in line with our RKE Strategy. We were quick to move seminars, events, networking and training activities online as part of a ‘Festival of Research’. This generated large and diverse global audiences for public engagement activities such as the ESRC Festival of Social Science and increased attendance at training and development workshops. Whilst our campus closed at the onset of the first lockdown in March 2020, the first of our research labs re-opened, under strict supervision, in July and the majority of our research facilities have come back into service, albeit with restricted access, gradually since then. We have ensured that the working environment is as flexible as possible by enhancing arrangements for remote working and by helping staff to cope with caring responsibilities. We have created a ‘Covid Research Recovery Fund’ to support staff whose research has been affected by the intersection of the COVID-19-induced restrictions and their own individual circumstances. We are supporting our PGRs by adjusting projects to aid on-schedule completion; providing access to labs and studios for practice-based research and funding for additional research costs. PGR students have access to the University Hardship Fund and fee-free study extensions of up to 12 months duration. We have removed the requirement for printed theses and moved vivas on line. Our research is making a major contribution to national efforts to combat the pandemic. We are working with other HEIs to tackle the wider social and economic consequences as well as the immediate medical impact of COVID-19. For example, we are the Northwest regional partner on the national REACT-2 project, led by Imperial College London that is assessing the transmission of COVID-19 in communities. Our Engineers in Print City produced 3D-printed PPE during the national shortage and launched a £3.2m project to help SMEs recover from the pandemic by using additive manufacturing technology to boost innovation and develop new products. Our Institute for Place Management is central to the UK Government’s response to the challenges facing the high street. It developed a national COVID-19 Recovery Framework used by Government to inform the release of £1.02 billion through the High Streets Task Force. Our social scientists are helping some of society’s most vulnerable deal with the longer-term impacts of COVID-19. We have received UKRI funding for research into domestic violence and are contributing to the Government’s Education Technology Strategy for supporting children, teachers and parents in the wake of the pandemic. We have also been supporting the arts through a project that is examining the impact of COVID-19 on theatres and Professor Dame Carol Ann Duffy has engaged poets across the world to create ‘Write Where We Are Now’ – an international artistic response to COVID-19. These are extraordinary times, and Manchester Metropolitan is proud of its contribution to helping address the ravages of the pandemic.