The study offers a powerful reminder that survival is only the beginning of recovery.

Published in the journal , the study evaluated the Enhanced Rehabilitation Programme (ERP), a specialist multidisciplinary rehabilitation service established following the 2017 91直播 Arena attack.

The programme provided intensive, personalised support for survivors who were still struggling with the physical and psychological consequences of their injuries more than a year after the event.

The researchers from the Universities of Salford and 91直播, 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, found that participants experienced substantial improvements in physical recovery, confidence, fitness, mental wellbeing and overall quality of life.

Survivors described achieving goals they once thought impossible, from walking without aids and reducing pain medication to returning to work, pursuing further education and rebuilding their independence.

While advances in trauma care mean more people than ever survive devastating injuries, many continue to live with long-term physical, psychological and social consequences that can persist for years after discharge from hospital.

The ERP brought together physiotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, surgeons, sports scientists and rehabilitation specialists to address the complex challenges faced by major trauma survivors, at the renowned 91直播 Institute of Health and Performance.

Participants consistently reported that the programme's personalised, holistic approach, and elite sport environment, helped them regain confidence, restore function and rebuild their lives.

Patients described how the programme shifted their focus from simply coping with injury to actively 鈥渢raining like an athlete鈥�, pursuing future goals and aspirations.

The study identified several important lessons for the future of trauma rehabilitation:

• Recovery after major trauma must address psychological and social wellbeing, not just physical injuries.
• Personalised goal-setting and progress tracking help maintain motivation and confidence throughout recovery.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation allows patients with complex injuries to receive coordinated support tailored to their individual needs.
• Despite the overwhelmingly positive experiences reported by participants, the study also highlighted concerns about what happens when specialist rehabilitation ends.
• Both patients and clinicians expressed anxieties about maintaining progress and accessing ongoing support through existing NHS services, with some describing a feeling of stepping off a rehabilitation "cliff edge" once the programme concluded.

, Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Regenerative Medicine at The University of Manchester and Consultant Trauma Surgeon at MFT, said: "This study is ultimately a story about resilience. The survivors we worked with faced life-changing injuries and experiences, yet many went on to achieve things they never thought would be possible. We saw people regain independence, rebuild confidence, return to work, improve their fitness and ultimately adopt a new healthier mindset.

"What was clear from both patients and clinicians is that recovery after major trauma involves much more than healing physical wounds. Psychological wellbeing, confidence, identity and social participation are all fundamental parts of rebuilding lives after injury.鈥�

Professor Wong, who is also a Dermatology Theme researcher at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): 91直播 which supported the study, added: "Our findings show that structured, multidisciplinary rehabilitation can make a real difference, but they also highlight an important challenge. Recovery doesn't end when someone leaves hospital, and access to rehabilitation does not always provide the specialist input required.

"This is an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary courage and determination of survivors of trauma, while recognising that many continue to need support long after their immediate injuries have healed. If we want to improve long-term outcomes, we must ensure that trauma survivors have access to sustainable rehabilitation pathways that support them throughout their recovery journey."

Paul Price, a 91直播 Arena attack survivor who took part in the Enhanced Rehabilitation Programme at the 91直播 Institute of Health and Performance (MIHIP) over two years, said: 鈥淭he NHS saved my life and put me back together, but it was the support and specialist care I received at MIHIP that gave me the means to carry on living.

鈥淭he programme helped me rebuild not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and showed me that recovery could mean more than simply coping 鈥� it could mean finding a way forward.鈥�

• The programme was funded through the We Love 91直播 Emergency Fund and Greater 91直播 Clinical Commissioning Groups, with support from the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): 91直播.
• The paper The enhanced rehabilitation programme for significant musculoskeletal injuries from the 91直播 arena bombing 鈥� A process evaluation study investigating patients鈥� and physiotherapists鈥� experiences is published in Physiotherapy听 DOI
• Image: view of the floral tribute in 91直播. Credit: Tomasz " Kozlowski

LanthaGen Bio was named the winner at the University of Manchester鈥檚 inaugural Innovation Festival following pitches from five shortlisted teams developing AI solutions to address real-world challenges.

LanthaGen Bio is developing technology that combines artificial intelligence, computational chemistry and physics-based modelling to accelerate the recovery of critical metals while reducing waste, costs and the need for resource-intensive laboratory testing.

Rare earth elements and other critical metals are essential to a wide range of technologies, including electric vehicles, smartphones and clean-energy infrastructure. However, recovering these materials efficiently and sustainably remains a significant challenge.

LanthaGen Bio aims to address this by developing proteins that selectively bind to target metals. These proteins known as Biomagnets, help recover valuable materials from existing waste streams, reducing reliance on conventional extraction and separation processes.

By combining computational chemistry, AI and physics-based modelling, LanthaGen Bio designs custom metal-binding proteins in days rather than months. This makes metal recovery faster, more efficient and sustainable.

LanthaGen Bio has already secured 拢2.4 million in grant funding, allowing their six-person team to build sustainably towards future development.

Dan Healy, co-founder of LanthaGen Bio Ltd, said: 鈥淭his funding has unlocked our next project, meaning we can extend the contracts of our amazing PhD scientists in Greater 91直播, keeping talent local and allowing us to target an entirely new metal for recycling that we couldn't previously research. As well as delivering skilled employment in Greater 91直播, our product aims to vastly increase circularity and reduce carbon emissions for a metal that has no established supply chain in Europe.鈥�

The Coller AI competition, established by The University of Manchester and the Jeremy Coller Foundation, supports early-stage ventures using artificial intelligence to tackle global challenges while ensuring technology is developed responsibly and for the benefit of people and society.

The competition attracted applications from students, staff and alumni across the University. The four other finalists were:

Health Equity Chain, building and AI tool that helps doctors and patients make better prostate cancer treatment decisions.

SporeSense, created an AI-powered early-warning system that detects crop disease before any symptoms are visible, helping farmers reduce losses and unnecessary pesticide use.

SenseVale, developing smart glasses to help blind and partially sighted people navigate their surroundings more independently.

Forkprint Ltd, developing AI-enabled models helping food businesses measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with ingredients and food preparation.

Professor Aline Miller, Associate Vice President (Enterprise) and CSO of Unit M at The University of Manchester said: 鈥淭he quality of every pitch was exceptional and a powerful reflection of the ambition and growing entrepreneurial spirit across our University ecosystem. Huge congratulations to LanthaGen Bio - it has been fantastic to see how far the team has come over the past 18 months, since first winning an Ideas with Impact Award in 2025. The competition was a fitting way to close our inaugural Innovation Festival: a week full of energy, bold ideas and a real sense of excitement about what comes next.鈥�

Jeremy Coller said: 鈥淎I will completely transform the way we live, work and communicate, solving challenges that have baffled us for generations and allowing humanity to achieve in the real world what was previously confined to our wildest imaginations. To make the most of that potential we have to support the innovators and entrepreneurs who are working so hard to unleash it, and that's what the Coller AI Competition is all about - identifying incredible people doing amazing things in the University of Manchester community and getting behind the very best of them.鈥�

is the philanthropic vehicle of private equity entrepreneur Jeremy Coller. The Foundation supports initiatives focused on education, entrepreneurship, pensions innovation and the transition to a more sustainable food system.

The Coller AI Competition forms part of The University of Manchester鈥檚 Challenge Accepted campaign, which supports ideas with the potential to tackle major global challenges. Challenge Accepted | Give | The University of Manchester

The initiative run by Unit M brings together the University of Manchester鈥檚 research strength, entrepreneurial talent and commitment to responsible innovation, supporting students, staff and alumni.

The proposed Centre in Bengaluru will provide a permanent platform for The University of Manchester to deepen its engagement with one of the world鈥檚 most dynamic education, research and innovation ecosystems. It will help to bring together academic expertise, industry knowledge and entrepreneurial talent to address shared challenges and create opportunities for students and researchers.

Building on The University of Manchester鈥檚 successful Partner-Enabled Learning (PEL) model in the UK, the centre in Bengaluru will create opportunities for students to gain practical experience through internships, work placements and industry-led projects.

The PEL model aims to close skills gaps by embedding real-world projects with employers, public bodies and community organisations into degree programmes, ensuring students graduate with practical experience as well as academic knowledge. It focuses on developing skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, collaboration and employer engagement through credit-bearing projects and micro-internships.

The University of Manchester has established relationships with leading businesses and industry partners across India, including organisations such as Reliance, Tata and Infosys, alongside a wider network of technology companies. The Centre will build on these connections to strengthen industry engagement and create new opportunities for students and researchers.

The announcement comes as The University of Manchester joins the first-ever Great North Mayoral Mission to India, taking place from 12 to 16 October 2026. The mission brings together universities, businesses, civic leaders and cultural organisations from across the North of England to forge new connections, build lasting relationships and share expertise with India.

Bengaluru has been identified as the preferred location for the Centre due to its position as one of India鈥檚 leading hubs for higher education, technology and innovation. The city is home to some of the country鈥檚 foremost universities and research institutes, alongside a thriving community of global businesses and technology companies. Many already collaborate with 91直播鈥檚 academics and graduates, providing a strong foundation for the University鈥檚 future presence in the city.

The announcement marks a significant step in the University鈥檚 ambition to strengthen its global presence, as set out in its strategy, From 91直播 for the World. It builds on decades of collaboration with partners across India and will create new opportunities to tackle global challenges by connecting 91直播鈥檚 expertise with India鈥檚 dynamic research, technology and innovation communities.

The Centre was announced at a special event at the Science Gallery Bengaluru, which featured alumni and leaders from sectors such as culture and business. The Mayor of Greater 91直播, Bev Craig also attended and there were panel discussions on innovation and culture led by President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, Professor Duncan Ivison.

Professor Ivison said: 鈥淭here is an incredible depth to 91直播鈥檚 relationship with India across education, business and culture. Our new Centre will be at the heart of deepening those relationships and I鈥檓 very excited to see what we can give, and what we can learn over the coming years.鈥�

The University of Manchester has international centres in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.

The proposed Centre aligns closely with the University鈥檚 International Delivery Plan, which places global engagement as a key objective of Manchester 2035. The plan recognises that international partnerships will be central to delivering world-leading research, creating new educational opportunities, strengthening innovation ecosystems and ensuring 91直播 remains a partner of choice around the world.

The University of Manchester was the first in the UK to establish a joint PhD programme with an Indian institution, launching its dual award PhD with IIT Kharagpur in 2021.

It also established collaborations with institutions including the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, BITS Pilani in fields of engineering and computer science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific research and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

This visit forms part of the University's Challenge Accepted fundraising and volunteering campaign, which has included launch events in Delhi and Mumbai.

The inaugural Innovation Festival ended on a high at the Nancy Rothwell Building, where five ventures went head to head in the Coller AI Competition final, pitching live for a 拢100,000 equity investment from the Jeremy Coller Foundation.

LanthaGen Bio Ltd won with an AI platform that designs metal-capturing proteins computationally, helping recover valuable metals from electronic waste and onshore the UK's critical-mineral supply. CTO and co-founder Dan Healy led the pitch, and accepted the award alongside CSO Ellie Goulding, which was presented by Investment Principal Harry Kalms.

Nearby, Prime Minister Andy Burnham addressed a local summit, calling for the UK to become the world's leading "innovation nation" and praising the University's role in 91直播's innovation story. Organisers confirmed the festival returns 1鈥�5 November 2027.

Amid the buzz of the Nancy Rothwell Building, five finalist ventures pitched live for a 拢100k investment at the Coller AI Competition final today. Each team applies AI to a different social challenge: LanthaGen Bio Ltd pitched their platform for combining biomolecules and machine-learning modelling to identify candidates for selectively recovering valuable metals from electronic waste鈥斺�榰rban mines鈥欌�攁nd help onshore the UK鈥檚 critical-mineral supply. SenseVale pitched smart glasses that help blind and partially sighted users navigate more independently.

Spore Sense pitched an AI-enabled system that reduces pesticide use by detecting crop disease before symptoms appear. Health Equity Chain pitched a treatment analyser that helps prostate cancer patients understand where they stand among people like them. Finally, Forkprint pitched models that analyse food business data to track greenhouse gas emissions and develop lower-carbon recipes.

LanthaGen Bio Ltd wins, turning electronic waste into a UK mineral supply

took home the prize鈥攑resented by Investment Principal Harry Kalms from the Jeremy Coller Foundation鈥攕ecuring the six-figure equity investment for its AI platform that simulates how proteins and peptides bind metals, allowing new metal-capturing proteins to be designed computationally rather than found by trial and error. The approach drastically shortens development while cutting the energy, chemicals, plastic and solvent waste of repeated screening 鈥� supporting UK efforts to recover valuable metals from electronic waste and onshore critical-mineral supply. CTO and co-founder Dan Healy led the pitch, with Healy and CSO and co-founder Ellie Goulding accepting the award. The prize adds to 拢2.4 million in grant funding already secured, allowing their six-person team to build sustainably towards future development.

"We were pitching against the best of the best, which makes it just so exciting鈥攊t feels amazing,鈥� Healy shared, adding encouragement for others who might be dreaming of a venture in the future, 鈥淵our idea doesn't have to be perfect... we really believed in this and it had some scientific integrity behind it. You really just go from that."

鈥淭he three co-founders at LanthaGen Bio each bring their own set of skills... they have such a positive, candid attitude. They've faced stumbling blocks, they've pivoted their thinking, but they are willing to talk to everybody, to absorb the information, and to work out which advice to listen to.鈥� 鈥� Aline Miller, Associate Vice-President (Enterprise), University of Manchester

A week that showcased 91直播's role in building an Innovation Nation

As the University鈥檚 inaugural Innovation Week closed, Prime Minister Andy Burnham called for the UK to become the world's leading "innovation nation" at a , praising the University's role in 91直播鈥檚 innovation story. Friday wraps five days of activity, with the festival hosting more than 25 events across 17 venues, including 116 speakers, 21 new ideas pitched, and over 3,000 registrations. For the University of Manchester鈥檚 President and Vice-Chancellor Duncan Ivison, the week capped 18 months of work: "We've created a new innovation agency, set up a first ever 拢10M Founders Fund, and launched an innovation hub on Oxford Road... I think the festival sends a big message that innovation is a huge part of our future." As the week came to a close, organisers, confirmed the event will return next year, 1鈥�5 November 2027.

Announcements and developments

• Atom Valley takes shape: The Festival鈥檚 final day also marked a major milestone in Rochdale, where the base build of the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) is now complete. It will give businesses in advanced materials and manufacturing access to specialist space, facilities and expertise, helping them move from concept to commercial application. The University of Manchester is lead delivery partner for the centre鈥檚 innovation ecosystem, working with Rochdale Development Agency, the Greater 91直播 Combined Authority, Innovation Greater 91直播 and UKRI. The SMMC is forecast to generate 拢107 million in economic value over ten years. 鈥淎tom Valley is an exciting opportunity and key to our plans to bring good growth to every postcode in Greater 91直播.鈥� 鈥� Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater 91直播

91直播 2035: voices from the Festival

鈥淗aving more startups based in the north would be great. We're quite passionate about putting our roots of a company down here.鈥� 鈥� Ellie Goulding, CSO and co-founder, LanthaGen Bio Ltd

鈥淚nnovation can breed social mobility. I'd love to see more opportunities for entrepreneurs from working class backgrounds, as queer and female founders.鈥� 鈥� Dan Healy, CTO and co-founder, LanthaGen Bio Ltd

鈥淲e have worked with over 1,500 people across the city region over the last three years to help them explore and enter into careers in AI. That is a civic responsibility... By 2035, we'll be awash with it.鈥� 鈥� Liz Scott MBE, Coller AI Competition judge and Chief Executive Director, Turing Innovation Catalyst

The 30,000 sq ft centre is the first major physical development within the Atom Valley Innovation District (AVID), a 25-acre hub for advanced materials and manufacturing in Rochdale, bringing together businesses, researchers, investors and innovation partners in one location.听AVID provides an environment where organisations can innovate, grow and commercialise new technologies, strengthening Greater 91直播's position as a leading centre for advanced materials and manufacturing.听

Completion of the building represents a major milestone for years of partnership working between Rochdale Development Agency (RDA), Greater 91直播 Combined Authority (GMCA), The University of Manchester and wider innovation partners.

RDA has led the physical development of the SMMC, working with partners to secure investment and position advanced materials and manufacturing as a priority opportunity for Rochdale and Greater 91直播. The next phase will see work move from construction towards specialist fit-out ahead of bringing the centre into operation in 2027.

The RDA brought together partners from industry, academia and government to establish the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability (CEAMS) in 2023. Since then, businesses have been able to connect with a national network of specialist expertise, facilities and innovation support through the CEAMS partners, including The University of Manchester, the Henry Royce Institute, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), CPI and NCC.

CEAMS has already supported more than 90 companies, developing new products and processes and demonstrating the value of a more connected innovation ecosystem.

The SMMC will provide a permanent physical gateway into the UK鈥檚 renowned advanced materials and manufacturing network. It will offer advanced materials and manufacturing businesses access to specialist space, facilities, expertise and the CEAMS national network of innovation support, helping them move from concept towards commercial application.

The development of the SMMC building has received 拢15.2 million from the UK Government's Towns Fund, 拢15m from the GMCA鈥檚 Good Growth Fund and 拢10 million from the Greater 91直播 Investment Zone.

The next phase for the innovation district has received a further major boost through 拢16.4 million from the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), a flagship UK government programme delivered through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in partnership with GMCA and Innovation Greater 91直播 (IGM), investing 拢500 million to strengthen regional innovation economies across the country. The University of Manchester is the lead delivery partner for the programme, working with RDA and the CEAMS consortium of national innovation partners to activate the ecosystem around the SMMC. Independent analysis forecasts that the centre will generate 拢107 million of economic value over ten years, delivering a 2:1 return on public investment while helping to attract new businesses, inward investment and high-value employment into Atom Valley.

Councillor Daniel Meredith, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Housing at Rochdale Borough Council, said: 鈥淭he building completion of the Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Centre is fantastic news for Rochdale residents. This landmark facility will help create new employment opportunities, support the development of high-value skills and ensure local people can benefit from some of the most exciting advances in modern manufacturing and materials science.

鈥淲e've worked hard to position Rochdale at the forefront of innovation and advanced manufacturing, and the SMMC is a clear example of that ambition becoming reality. It's a major investment in our future, creating opportunities for local businesses, attracting new employers and helping to build a stronger economy for generations to come.鈥�

Professor John Holden, Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation at The University of Manchester, said: 鈥淐ompleting the base build is a major achievement and testament to the partnership that has brought the SMMC this far. The opportunity now is to bring that physical investment to life by drawing together businesses, research, expertise and innovation in a way that creates lasting value for Rochdale, Greater 91直播 and the UK.

鈥淭he University is the lead delivery partner charged with delivering the innovation ecosystem that will accelerate the growth of the advanced materials and manufacturing cluster already in the region, connecting our research strengths with businesses and national partners to help new ideas develop, scale and reach the market at pace, and attracting over 拢60 million in private sector investment. The SMMC and wider Atom Valley Innovation District is a crucial part of our commitment to driving innovation-led growth right across Greater 91直播.鈥�

Charlotte Deane, UK Research & Innovation senior sponsor for Greater 91直播 said: 鈥淕reater 91直播 has outstanding strengths in advanced materials and manufacturing. This 拢16.4m Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF) investment backs those strengths by connecting businesses with a national network of expertise and support to turn world-class research and innovation into economic opportunity by powering the growth of an advanced materials focused cluster of companies on the Kingsway Business Park.

鈥淭he SMMC and the wider Atom Valley Innovation District show the potential of universities, industry and

civic partners working together to support innovation-led growth, unlock new supply chain opportunities, create new jobs and strengthen the region鈥檚 ability to attract and grow innovative businesses.鈥�

Mayor of Greater 91直播 Bev Craig said: 鈥淎tom Valley is an exciting opportunity and key to our plans to bring good growth to every postcode in Greater 91直播. The completion of the SMMC building is a major milestone for what will become a nationally significant hub for innovation.

鈥淲e鈥檙e providing space for businesses and connecting them with investment, world-class research, facilities and support within the wider Atom Valley Innovation District. In practice, that means more opportunities for our businesses to grow, attracting new investment to this part of Greater 91直播, and more high-value jobs for our residents.鈥�

The milestone was announced during a week where The University of Manchester hosted its inaugural Innovation Festival, to showcase 91直播's vibrant, globally connected innovation ecosystem and bring together researchers, students, entrepreneurs, partners, investors and civic leaders to explore how ideas become impact.

Where earlier days celebrated what 91直播 is building, Thursday looked outwards. The first Cambridge x 91直播 Partnership Innovation Summit filled Sister to the brim with founders, researchers, investors and policymakers from both cities. Panels explored the partnership鈥檚 mission to 鈥榮upercharge innovation-led growth鈥�, with speakers from the University, Arm, Northern Gritstone, No. 10 North, UKRI and the British Chambers of Commerce.

Six 91直播 founders pitched their innovations in lightning talks, and Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater 91直播, gave the keynote before closing remarks from University of Manchester President and Vice-Chancellor, Duncan Ivison and Shaun Grady, UK Chair of AstraZeneca. The Investor Summit continued the conversation on growth capital in the afternoon. In the evening, University of Manchester founders pitched to investors, mentors and partners at 91直播 Venture Builder Demo Day, also at Sister, while Holiferm鈥檚 co-founders shared how they built their biotechnology company at The Founders Playbook at 91直播 Museum.

Co-opetition: the experiment linking two innovation powerhouses

Opening the summit, Faye Holland, Partnership Director of the Cambridge x 91直播 Partnership, argued that the UK's challenge may be less about talent or funding than about systems. The partnership is the UK's first deliberately designed cross-city innovation partnership, with three objectives: driving economic growth, building for global growth, and making sure that growth is good growth that reaches communities beyond the innovation economy. Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said the UK too often gets caught in binaries, such as north versus south, and needs to "multiply our relationships, not narrow them" to compete globally.

鈥淲hat typically happens is we compete. Our postcodes compete, our councils compete, our combined authorities compete鈥� I wonder why we don't use the word co-opetition, where we bring collaboration and competition together in a really positive way鈥� We only have three years from start to finish to prove that this model can actually work.鈥� 鈥� Faye Holland, Partnership Director, The Cambridge x 91直播 Partnership

鈥淐ambridge and 91直播 are not rivals; they are increasingly one ecosystem, and the UK innovation economy, as a whole, is stronger for it.鈥� 鈥� Shaun Grady, UK Chair, AstraZeneca

Six ventures, five minutes each: 91直播鈥檚 ideas take the stage

Six lightning talks showed the kind of companies the partnership wants to help scale. Hosted by Dr Karim Bahou, Head of Innovation at Sister, the founders pitched for the audience鈥檚 vote. Alongside pitches from N:SYM and Nanoco, Spore Sense, which spun out of the University just four weeks ago, has developed a sensor that detects crop disease before symptoms appear. Silveray has invented flexible digital X-ray film for inspecting pipes and welds, an industry still largely reliant on analogue film. CircKit is helping fashion brands design waste out from the start, and Fava Health is bringing genomics into everyday healthcare for better personalised treatment.

鈥淭here is still a major imbalance in where innovation capital flows within the UK鈥� Around 80% of venture capital still remains within London, Oxford and Cambridge鈥� A big part of the opportunity is making it easier for founders to move between these two ecosystems, and share deal flow across both of these regions.鈥� 鈥� Dr Karim A. Bahou, Head of Innovation, Sister

Competing with the world, not each other听

A panel chaired by Fiona Tuck of Metro Dynamics asked what Britain鈥檚 innovation economy still lacks. Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said the UK is too small to treat its regions as separate innovation ecosystems, with capital 鈥渟tuck鈥� in the places that are already well resourced. Harriet Gordon, Deputy Director at No. 10 North, said the UK鈥檚 real competition is Boston, Silicon Valley and Paris: for investors, the choice is rarely 91直播 or Liverpool, but 91直播 or Munich.听听

In her keynote, Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater 91直播, said regions need to 鈥渃omplement each other, not just compete with each other鈥�, and set out a vision of good growth that people can feel in their daily lives.听

鈥淪imply creating growth to impact on someone鈥檚 bank balance, without seeing the number of jobs increase and the quality of someone鈥檚 life improve, is just growth for growth鈥檚 sake.鈥� 鈥� Bev Craig, Mayor of Greater 91直播听

Announcements and developments听

• The Cambridge x 91直播 Partnership will launch an 鈥渋nnovation passport鈥� by the end of the year, giving founders and researchers easier access to office space, accelerator programmes, investors and corporate partners across both cities.
• A joint investment prospectus for Cambridge and 91直播 is on its way, Shaun Grady, UK Chair of AstraZeneca, told the summit, urging investors to 鈥済et in early鈥�.听

91直播 2035: voices from the Festival听

鈥淚 would hope that eight- and nine-year-olds growing up in Ardwick and Brunswick, right next to us, or a young person growing up in Rochdale, not only see the University as part of the place they live, but see it as theirs in some way.鈥� 鈥� Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester听

鈥淏y 2035, I鈥檇 expect to see Graphene in many products, from shoes to clothing to computers to tyres to aircraft 鈥� not in there because it鈥檚 Graphene, but because it鈥檚 adding competitive advantage.鈥� 鈥� James Baker, founder, Baker Graphene, and former Chief Executive, Graphene@91直播听

Demo Day听

On Thursday evening, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre and Venture Caf茅 91直播 hosted 91直播 Venture Builder Demo Day 2026 at Sister. University of Manchester founders from the Venture Builder programme took to the stage to pitch ventures they had spent months testing and refining. They ranged from Remi, a platform that helps therapists manage clients and build personalised exercises, to a student startup growing organic bananas and drying them with solar power. Investors, mentors, alumni, corporate partners and a delegation from Hartford in the US then joined the founders for a showcase and networking reception, continuing the outward-looking theme of the day.听

鈥淚鈥檝e made more progress in the paste ten minutes of networking here than in the past 30 days of cold emailing and cold LinkedIn messaging!鈥� 鈥� Jacob Katz, founder, AMBS, BSc Management with Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship听

"Innovation doesn't happen just because you have a great idea鈥� Getting people that have money, people that have technology, people that know how to do business 鈥� you can't do it on your own, but you can pull them together into one location." 鈥� Gene Goddard, Chief Business Investment Officer, Metro Hartford听

Around the Festival听

Away from Sister, Sow the City shared community-led social innovation at Growing Change event, and showcased funded projects at Inclusive Innovation for People and Planet. Beyond the Hearing Loop explored how Auracast audio technology could benefit deaf, hard-of-hearing and neurodivergent communities, and the University and national initiative, E3M met to discuss social enterprise innovation in public services.听

Coming up听

The Festival closes on Friday 9 October with the final of the Coller AI Competition, where University of Manchester AI startups pitch live for a 拢100,000 equity investment from The Jeremy Coller Foundation.听听

In the first study of its kind, published in , the scientists show how changes in this gene can cause a much milder disease than previously known

They identified that in 14 patients with retinitis pigmentosa, it was caused by certain combinations of faults in a gene called IDUA.

The gene is normally associated with mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), a rare disorder that can cause severe physical disability, heart problems, skeletal abnormalities and shortened life expectancy.

Yet several of the patients in the study showed no signs of the disorder despite detailed medical assessments and follow-up into their forties, fifties, sixties and seventies.

Their failing eyesight was the first and sometimes only clue to an underlying health problem.

The findings suggest some people with retinitis pigmentosa may actually have an extremely mild form of a metabolic disease that has gone unrecognised for decades.

The discovery expands our understanding of MPS I and reveals that the condition can exist in a much milder form than previously thought.

None of the patients carried the combinations of severe genetic faults normally seen in classic MPS I.

Instead, they carried milder combinations of gene faults in IDUA.

Through a series of lab experiments, the scientists found these milder faults act in different ways - some directly reducing the enzyme's activity, others disrupting the gene's splicing instructions - but in each case leaving behind only a tiny fraction, as little as 0.5 to 2 per cent, of normal function.

The scientists suspect this tiny amount of residual activity may be enough to protect most organs from damage while leaving the retina vulnerable.

One theory is that the eye may be especially sensitive to defects in the body's cellular recycling machinery because of its exceptionally high energy demands.

The findings could have implications for genetic screening programmes designed to identify rare diseases, including MPS I, in newborn babies.

And they also underline the importance of including IDUA and related metabolic genes in genetic testing for inherited retinal diseases.

Lead author from The University of Manchester said: "This study shows that the same gene can cause dramatically different disease outcomes, depending on how much of its related enzyme activity remains.

鈥淚n some patients we found almost no evidence of the devastating multisystem disorder typically associated with IDUA - their disease appeared confined to the retina, the mildest presentation we've seen to date.

鈥淭hese findings broaden the recognised spectrum of disease, improve diagnosis for patients with inherited blindness, and provide important clues about why the retina appears especially susceptible to even very small reductions in enzyme function.

鈥淲e hope they will help clinicians identify hitherto unrecognised cases of IDUA-related disease and pave the way for future treatments aimed at preserving vision before irreversible damage occurs.鈥�

• The paper Hypomorphic IDUA genotypes are associated with retinitis pigmentosa in individuals without syndromic mucopolysaccharidosis type I , published in ,听 is available at DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.09.008

The University of Manchester celebrated the very best in collaboration and knowledge exchange on Wednesday 7 October at the inaugural Partnership Excellence Awards, recognising the people, projects and organisations delivering outstanding impact through partnership working.

Held at the Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the University's Innovation Festival, the awards brought together academics, researchers, professional services colleagues and their external partners and collaborators for an evening of celebration. The inaugural awards attracted more than 120 nominations, with 25 partnerships shortlisted across eight awards. They were organised by the Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange team, led by Dr Louise Bates, Director of Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange, and hosted by compere Adam Lovell.

Welcoming guests, Professor John Holden, Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation, said partnership runs through the University's 91直播 2035 strategy. 鈥淣o matter how good we are as a university, we can only have the scale of impact we want by working with others,鈥� he said. Over the past year, he added, the University has created 191 new business partnerships, around one for every working day, and now ranks first in the UK for contract research with small and medium-sized enterprises.

The awards, Professor Holden said, were about 鈥渞ecognising the people and relationships that make those projects possible鈥� We all know that partnership working depends on brave people.鈥�

This year's winners demonstrate the impact of collaboration across research and innovation, business growth, social enterprise, regional development and strategic industry engagement.

Strategic Alliance Excellence

馃弳 Boots / No7 & Prof. Michael Sherratt and Dr. Abigail Langton

The long-standing partnership between Boots / No7 and The University of Manchester was recognised for its outstanding contribution to skin science and evidence-based skincare. Over more than two decades, the collaboration has translated world-leading research into products used by millions of consumers while generating significant research outputs, investment and innovation.

Regional Partnership Excellence

馃弳 United Utilities & Prof. Timothy Foster

United Utilities was recognised for a long-standing collaboration with the University covering areas including integrated water management, digitisation, robotics, sustainability and skills development. The partnership has helped inform major regional initiatives and continues to support innovation and economic growth across the North-West.

Research Collaboration Excellence

馃弳 FUJIFILM & Prof. Alan Dickson

The partnership between FUJIFILM and the University was recognised for advancing bioprocessing and biomanufacturing research through the Centre of Excellence in Bioprocessing 2.0. The collaboration has supported researchers and PhD students, generated high-quality publications and strengthened the translation of research into industrial applications and novel biological medicines.

Social Enterprise Excellence

馃弳 One World Together & Prof. Nicola Banks

One World Together received the award for its partnership with the University to support changemaking education, community engagement and social impact. The collaboration has secured funding to work with schools across Greater 91直播, provided valuable opportunities for students, and supported community-led organisations both in the UK and internationally.

Small Business Partnership Excellence

馃弳 Saraco Industries Ltd & Prof. Sarah Cartmell and Prof. Andrew McBain

Saraco Industries Ltd was recognised for a highly successful partnership that has combined academic expertise with industrial innovation to develop plastic-free clinical disinfection wipes for healthcare applications, while strengthening the company's research and development capability. The collaboration has evolved through multiple projects and demonstrates the long-term value of university-SME partnerships.

Academic Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Champion

馃弳 Dr Thomas Bannan

Dr Thomas Bannan was recognised for an extensive portfolio of partnerships that translate atmospheric science into public, environmental and economic benefit. His work spans collaboration with local authorities, industry, policymakers and communities, including leadership of air quality initiatives, Innovate UK projects and the 拢1.3 million RAMMIC Retrofit Innovation Centre.

Business Partnership Rising Star

馃弳 Dr Milo Harries

Dr Milo Harries received the Rising Star Award for his work with Leeds City Council and the Aire Resilience Company, using creative and participatory approaches to engage communities around climate resilience and natural flood management. His work has helped strengthen cross-sector collaboration and support the growth of the Aire Resilience Company as a Community Interest Company.

Partnership Excellence of the Year

馃弳 Saraco Industries Ltd & Prof. Sarah Cartmell and Prof. Andrew McBain

The evening's highest accolade, Partnership Excellence of the Year, was awarded to Saraco Industries Ltd in recognition of the depth, longevity and impact of its collaboration with the University. Through multiple collaborative projects, the partnership has combined expertise in bioengineering, microbiology and materials science to drive innovation, support business growth and develop new healthcare solutions with real-world impact.

An evening of partnership

The winners' trophies were designed and manufactured by students in the University's Makerspace, reflecting the creativity and collaboration at the heart of the celebration. The shortlist was reviewed by a panel of 21 judges from academia, leadership, professional services and innovation.

Rising Star category shortlisted nominee Dr Amy Worth had partnered with Eli Lilly and Company for a decade to study the complex neuronal circuitry that underpins the actions of GLP-1 drugs to combat diabetes, obesity and cravings for alcohol. She and lab group lead Professor Simon Luckman said that trust is at the heart of the partnership. 鈥淲e鈥檝e built it up over 20 years, so now there is very open and honest exchange.鈥�

For Dr Joanne Tippett, whose RoundView project was also shortlisted, a good partnership requires: 鈥淚t takes the ability to try something out and find out it doesn't work and learn from that and keep going and iterating on an idea.鈥�

Congratulations to all finalists and the many colleagues, support staff and external partners whose commitment and collaboration underpins the success that these Partnership Excellence Awards celebrated in style.

Wednesday was the Festival鈥檚 busiest day yet. At 91直播 to Market, spinouts supported by The University of Manchester Innovation Factory showcased their work on the ground floor of University Place, from AI-guided enzyme engineering to virtual reality healthcare training and research-led theatre.

A short walk away in Whitworth Hall, the Powerhouse of Innovation Showcase brought together the teams, programmes and partners that help those ideas grow, including a new collaboration between the Innovate UK Innovation-to-Commercialisation of University Research programme (ICURe) and the .

In the evening, the inaugural Partnership Excellence Awards at the Whitworth celebrated the partnerships behind the University鈥檚 impact. The evening鈥檚 highest accolade, Partnership Excellence of the Year, went to Saraco Industries Ltd, Professor Sarah Cartmell and Professor Andrew McBain, whose collaboration has developed plastic-free clinical disinfection wipes for healthcare.

From enzymes to the stage: 91直播鈥檚 spinouts step into the spotlight

91直播 to Market filled the ground floor of University Place with spinouts supported by The University of Manchester Innovation Factory, whose portfolio now numbers around 84 companies worth an estimated 拢400鈥�500 million. The ventures exhibiting were at very different stages. Among them, Imperagen uses an AI-led robotic lab to engineer enzymes for manufacturers. GiFT, an electromagnetic guidance system for tracheostomy procedures, improved needle accuracy fourfold in trials on mannequins, and its team estimates it could save the NHS around 拢50 million a year. Not every venture was a technology: Tiny Human Dramas turns anthropological research into short pieces of theatre.

鈥淚f it hadn鈥檛 been for the Innovation Factory, I wouldn鈥檛 have known I belonged in this space鈥� In the arts, a little bit of attention and a little bit of funding goes a long way. The more of us that are in this scene, the more it鈥檒l feel like this is innovation, of a particular kind.鈥� 鈥� Megan Rose Donnelly, Lecturer in Social Anthropology and founder of Tiny Human Dramas

The innovation ecosystem backing 91直播鈥檚 bright ideas

The Powerhouse of Innovation Showcase in the Whitworth Hall brought together some 25 of the teams, programmes and partners that help ideas grow across the University, and one new collaboration showcased one way in which those pieces can connect. The Innovate UK ICURe programme, ran across the North from The University of Manchester, helps 鈥渃ommercially curious鈥� academics find out whether there is a real market for their research by getting out and talking to potential customers, investors and regulators. Starting later this month, ICURe鈥檚 latest local endeavour will bring cohorts of materials researchers at the Henry Royce Institute together with business mentors and potential customers, adding commercial know-how to the equipment and expertise Royce already opens up to researchers, spinouts, and SMEs.

鈥淭he best part of this job is, without a shadow of a doubt, talking to these entrepreneurial leads and seeing their personal development growth鈥� to see the light bulb come on above their head.鈥� 鈥� Veronica Ferguson, Head of Regional Hub Operations Manager, Innovate UK ICURe

鈥淒on鈥檛 put risk-averseness in front of innovation鈥� In order to innovate, in order to keep moving, we鈥檝e got to expand our boundaries鈥� We鈥檝e got to have the freedom to think, the freedom to challenge, the freedom to question and test. Those are the core fundamentals.鈥� 鈥� Saeed Adam, Client Relations Manager, Executive Education, Alliance 91直播 Business School

Inaugural Partnership Excellence Awards celebrate 91直播's collaborators

The University celebrated its most impactful collaborations on Wednesday evening at the inaugural Partnership Excellence Awards, held at the Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the Innovation Festival.

Organised by the Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange team, directed by Dr Louise Bates, the awards drew more than 120 nominations. The joyous event brought 25 shortlisted partnerships together, adding an extra layer of connection between academics, industry, public sector and community collaborators.

Congratulations to everyone, especially each category winner:

• Regional Partnership 鈥� United Utilities with Prof. Tim Foster, Department of Civil Engineering and Management.
• Social Enterprise Partnership 鈥� One World Together with Prof. Nicola Banks, Global Development Institute, School of Environment, Education and Development.
• Strategic Alliance 鈥� Boots/No 7 with Prof. Michael Sherratt and Dr Abigail Langton, School of Biological Sciences.
• Small Business Partnership 鈥� Saraco Industries Ltd with Prof. Sarah Cartmell and Prof. Andrew McBain, Department of Materials and School of Biological Sciences.
• Research collaboration 鈥� FUJIFILM with Prof. Alan Dickson
• Academic Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Champion 鈥� Dr Thomas Bannan.
• Business Partner Rising Star 鈥� Dr Milo Harries.

The multidisciplinary partnership with Saraco Industries also won the Partnership of the Year Award. The relationship began with an award-winning Knowledge Exchange Partnership in 2021 that advanced materials science, biophysics and microbiology expertise into the business, enabling development of plastic-free clinical disinfection wipes that met stringent EN standards. The partnership deepened with further projects to on formulation development and collaboration on a clear, data-driven R&D roadmap. A second KTP is now developing bacteriophage-infused wipes for healthcare applications.

Professor John Holden, Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation, said: 鈥淧artnership working depends on brave people.鈥� The University applauds all the pioneers and risk-takers nominated for these awards.

Read the full awards story story.

Announcements and developments

• On Tuesday evening, the University celebrated the completion of William Kay House, putting innovation at the heart of campus and creating a new home for .

91直播 2035: voices from the Festival

鈥淚f by 2035 we can tangibly say that, through the things we鈥檝e supported, we have improved quality of lives, through environmental and social impact, I would feel extremely proud.鈥� 鈥� Catherine Headley, Chief Executive Officer, The University of Manchester Innovation Factory

鈥淚鈥檇 love one of our spinouts to get to the scale where they鈥檙e employing 10,000 people. It鈥檚 about jobs, and the impact that has. For me, that鈥檚 what it鈥檚 all about.鈥� 鈥� Nic Gowland, Portfolio Director, The University of Manchester Innovation Factory

鈥淣ext month we鈥檒l use it in patients in hospital鈥� This could actually save people鈥檚 lives.鈥� 鈥� Professor Andy Weightman, Professor of Medical Mechatronics, The University of Manchester, on his hopes for the GiFT guidance system

Around the Festival

Beyond the core events, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre hosted an Enterprise Educators UK exchange event on partner-enabled learning, bringing together academics, University colleagues, students and industry representatives to explore how industry partnerships can be built into enterprise and entrepreneurship education. At Contact Theatre, Creative 91直播鈥檚 Re-imagining Innovation: The Value of Creative Practices, part of The Cultural Welcome festival, explored how creative writers and artists approach ideas about innovation 鈥� a fitting companion to the theatre of Tiny Human Dramas at 91直播 to Market.

Coming up

On Thursday 8 October, the brings founders, researchers, investors and policymakers to Sister / Renold Building (8.45am鈥�1.30pm), followed by the invite-only Investor Summit (1.30pm鈥�5pm).

University founders then pitch at , also at Sister (5pm鈥�8.30pm), while Holiferm鈥檚 co-founders share their story at , 91直播 Museum (5pm鈥�7pm).

Fringe events include:

• Social Enterprise Innovation in Public Services

The ultra-sensitive monitoring technology reveals how different parts of the brain respond during a stroke, potentially allowing doctors to identify which areas can still be saved and which are at greatest risk of further harm.

The study in mice, published in , brought together researchers from The University of Manchester, the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), and industry partner Multi Channel Systems in Germany.

Ischaemic Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide and occurs when a blockage cuts off blood supply to part of the brain.

But scientists say the initial loss of blood flow is only part of the story, because a second wave of damage can spread through surrounding tissue in the hours that follow.

These waves, known as cortical spreading depolarizations, are bursts of abnormal electrical activity that travel through injured brain tissue and can contribute to the expansion of the original injury.

Until now, researchers have struggled to study the signals accurately because conventional monitoring technologies cannot reliably capture the extremely slow electrical changes involved.

However, using advanced graphene-based sensors placed directly on the brains of mice, the team recorded these events in unprecedented detail, revealing signals that are poorly captured by conventional recording technologies and whose significance has therefore not been fully appreciated.

The researchers found that the shape and characteristics of the electrical signals acted as a fingerprint for the health of nearby brain tissue.

The signals were able to distinguish between tissue that remained relatively healthy, tissue that was vulnerable and potentially recoverable, and tissue that had already suffered severe damage.

Crucially, the technology also revealed how blood vessels responded when these electrical waves passed through the brain.

In healthier areas, blood flow increased to support recovery, while in more vulnerable regions blood flow sometimes fell even further, increasing the risk of lasting damage.

The team then demonstrated that these harmful responses could be modified using low doses of ketamine, a drug already widely used in clinical practice.

Ketamine shortened the duration of damaging electrical events, improved blood flow responses and reduced the overall size of brain injuries in the study.

Lead author from the University of Manchester听 added: 鈥淭his work raises the prospect that graphene-based brain monitoring could one day provide doctors with a real-time map of brain vulnerability during stroke.

鈥淭his could helping them target treatments to patients most at risk and ultimately improve recovery and long-term outcomes.鈥�

Co-author from The University of Manchester and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, said: 鈥淔or the first time, we have been able to see critical stroke-related brain signals with a level of detail that was previously impossible to achieve.

鈥淲hat is particularly exciting is that the signals tell us about the condition of the surrounding brain tissue and how likely it is to deteriorate further.

Co-author Dr Anton Guimer脿-Brunet from IMB-CNM, CSIC听 said: 鈥淭his study opens up the possibility of monitoring injury as it happens and identifying opportunities for intervention when treatment could make the greatest difference.鈥�

• 路The paper 鈥淧erfusion-dependent spreading depolarization signatures identify tissue vulnerability in stroke鈥�, is published in DOI: 10.1093/brain/awag305
• Image depicts the graphene-based brain sensor听on a mouse's brain

Unlocking ideas with 91直播鈥檚 future innovators

MEC Ideas Unlocked, a hands-on event at University Place, brought together students from across the University to explore what it means to think and act like an entrepreneur. Masood Entrepreneurship Centre鈥檚 Louise Taylor, Enterprise Manager, and Dan Syder, Ecosystem Development Manager, worked with students in groups as they identified a problem, brainstormed solutions, and shaped their thinking using the MEC Business Model Canvas.

For many, it was a first taste of enterprise: "Usually we have lots of ideas, but we don't know how to structure them, how to convert them into a business," said Prem Todeti, a first-year renewable energy master's student.

The event reflects MEC's university-wide remit 鈥� and its momentum. Director Lee Pugalis said the Centre has almost trebled business formation over five years, with over 80 businesses created in the last year alone.

"I never would have met any of these individuals had I not come to the event. It just demonstrated the importance of people from all over the world having different ideas, but you can still come together and make one solid foundation." 鈥� Darcey Cornish, final-year International Management student, Alliance 91直播 Business School

"Today鈥檚 event showed me that every problem has a solution. Collectively, we can work together and do better." 鈥� Dr. Soumya Pujar, Master's in Public Health student, University of Manchester

Rooted in the North, global in mindset

The strongest spin-outs think globally from day one. That was the consensus at Northern Gritstone's panel at the Whitworth Art Gallery, which explored how northern start-ups can scale worldwide without losing their regional roots. From life sciences to battery technology, panellists agreed that companies go global because their innovations meet real customer needs around the world.

But global ambition need not mean leaving the North behind. Dr Nicola Broughton, Chair of University of Liverpool spin-out Extentus Pharma, said a company can run sales and a commercial hub in the United States while keeping its research base in the UK. Northern roots also carry growing weight. As Professor Sam Butterworth, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Manchester spin-out Apini Therapeutics, put it: "I think our 91直播 origin builds on reputation. There is great science coming out of the Northwest."

One panellist was missing for the best possible reason. Dr Tim Echtermeyer, founder of PhovIR Technologies, a spin-out from the University's Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, was in California meeting investors to secure the company's next funding round.

鈥淩ecruiting people with experience, I think, is the most important thing you can do to grow globally. If you get that flywheel going, that's what's really exciting.鈥� 鈥� Joanne Hosker, Head of NG Innovation Services, Northern Gritstone

Founders find clearer routes to grow at Sister

If the Whitworth panel showed how far 91直播's strongest ventures can go, Founder Momentum Day showed how entrepreneurs take the first steps. Back for a second edition at Sister, the innovation hub on the University's former North Campus, the day connected early-stage founders with peers and more specialist advice.

Getting ready for investment was a recurring theme. In a workshop on investor readiness, Adam Clayton of GM Business Growth Hub said that investors are now backing the founder as much as the product. So, transparency, resilience and a well-organised data room, count as much as the pitch deck. He urged founders to name their rivals rather than avoid them: "Competition is good because it shows there's money to be made."

鈥淒ays like this matter for AI founders like me. You can build something technically brilliant, but you only learn how to win people鈥檚 trust by talking to customers, advisers, and other founders.鈥� 鈥� Leyla Ari, AI entrepreneur

The afternoon's Silicon Sessions, hosted by Lewis Sayes of Silicon Mingle, swapped pitching for problem-solving. Three founders each shared a real challenge, then experts and peers worked through solutions together, including Karim Bahou, Head of Innovation at Sister, and specialists in marketing, commercial law and grant funding. "We always like to present our businesses as perfect," Sayes said. "That鈥檚 why I enjoy doing this so much, because it changes that around."

The support continues after the day. Sister runs free Thursday evening gatherings and co-working space for founders, Silicon Mingle holds a monthly mixer on the last Wednesday of each month, and Founder Momentum Day returns in a few months. As Will Pretsell of Evolve Speakers told the room at the close, "Your business is only going to grow as far as you push it.鈥�

91直播 2035: voices from the Festival

鈥淪tudents are our most powerful innovators. So, if every student was graduating with an entrepreneurial mindset... it could be well in excess of 50,000 students. That talent pipeline is the biggest impact we can have in terms of innovation.鈥� 鈥� Lee Pugalis, Director, Masood Entrepreneurship Centre

Coming up

Wednesday鈥檚 sessions: , 09:30鈥�13:00, Ground Floor, University Place and , 11:00鈥�16:00, Whitworth Hall.

Waitlist available:

The Partnership Excellence Awards will celebrate outstanding collaborations, partnerships and knowledge exchange activity that deliver impact across The University of Manchester and beyond鈥� (Invite only.)

That streak of rebellion, the instinct to question the rules, try something different and find another way has remained a defining feature of an exciting and innovative career.

Lomax says studying Liberal Studies in Science at The University of Manchester in the 1960s changed the course of his life. It was a degree that combined pure science with subjects including technology, economics and the history of innovation.

鈥淚 just wanted to be an entrepreneur and build things, I love business. 91直播 had the Atlas 1 computer, which weighed more than two tonnes. It was fascinating, I learned to programme and that became a transformational part of my life鈥�.

After graduating, he took that knowledge into industry, exploring how computers could transform traditional engineering.

In the 1980s, he helped turn Misys, a small technology software company, into a global business employing thousands. In 1998, it became the first UK IT company to enter the FTSE 100.

Five decades on from that first trip to The University of Manchester as a student, Kevin Lomax has returned-this time with a 拢1m gift to the Founders Fund. The University of Manchester has pledged a further 拢2m to the fund to help students, staff and graduates access early-stage investment for innovation and business.

The University of Manchester has set an initial goal to raise 拢10m for The Founders Fund through philanthropic donations.

The investment will address a critical funding gap facing students, staff, and alumni entrepreneurs as they turn ideas into viable high growth companies.

The Fund is part of Challenge Accepted, the University鈥檚 ambitious initiative bringing together its global community to tackle major challenges, unlock new ideas and turn innovation into positive impact.

For Lomax, the crucial word is early.

He has spent much of his career investing in early-stage technology companies and has seen first-hand how a relatively small amount of money at the right moment can make a difference to an idea becoming a successful business.

One investment he describes has since reached a valuation of billions of dollars. But four years earlier, the company needed just $150,000 to get started.

鈥淚f it didn鈥檛 get the $150,000, it wouldn鈥檛 have got off the ground鈥� he says.

That, Lomax argues, is the gap the Founders Fund can help address.

鈥淭he earliest stage of building a company is also one of the riskiest, 8 out of 10 early ventures may fail. That is precisely why conventional investors can be reluctant to provide the first funding."

Lomax believes that risk is essential.

鈥淭hat's where the future is. New companies are where much of the future economic growth and job creation will come from. Established businesses can become more efficient and grow steadily, but it is often new businesses that have the potential to grow rapidly and create entirely new markets.鈥�

The Founders Fund is more than simply writing cheques. It is about creating the opportunity to test an idea, learn, adapt and, crucially, sometimes fail. The courage to change direction is something Lomax understands from his own experience.

Misys began with a different ambition. Initially, Lomax wanted to develop computer-aided design technology, but he realised that the company could not build the momentum to compete effectively in the American market. He changed course, turning instead to insurance software.

For today鈥檚 entrepreneur, he believes the lesson is simple: don鈥檛 become so attached to the original idea that you fail to recognise when the market is telling you to change.

鈥淵ou start off with one aim, but you quickly recognise that actually you鈥檙e going in the wrong direction, and you need to have a different one.鈥�

There are many lessons to learn in business. For Lomax, a fundamental one is that people matter more than ideas.

When he considers investing in an early-stage technology company, he says the first thing he looks at is the people.

鈥淵ou can have the best idea in the world, but if you don鈥檛 have the skill set to deliver on that it won鈥檛 succeed. And that means recognising your own limitations.鈥�

For highly technical minds, it could mean bringing in people who understand sales, markets, finance or how to turn brilliant technology into a commercial proposition.

鈥淯nderstand what needs to be done and trust in the right people to do it.鈥�

The Founders Fund will be launched at the beginning of a week-long programme of activity across The University of Manchester鈥檚 inaugural Innovation Festival.

High-potential ventures are expected to typically receive investments of 拢25,000 to 拢250,000, in return for a small, non-controlling equity stake. The call for applications is expected to open in January 2027.

Lomax says there is so much to celebrate about 91直播 - its innovation, cultural diversity, and welcoming spirit. For him, bringing entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and students together is valuable because nobody knows where the next idea will come from.

鈥淚nnovation requires people to put ideas on the table, challenge them and see what happens.鈥�

Lomax fondly remembers doing just that in the early days of his career.

鈥淲e would finish work and head to the pub, where they would debate what the company should do next.鈥�

鈥淚t was a very creative process where people were coming up with ideas all the time, obviously not all good.鈥�

鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 matter.鈥�

鈥淭he important thing is creating an environment where people feel able to suggest something different.鈥�

The University used the opening day of the Innovation Festival to launch , a delivery plan designed to help create 鈥淓urope鈥檚 most inclusive and impactful innovation ecosystem鈥� by 2035 as part of the University鈥檚 Strategy to 2035. The plan sets out how the University will broaden innovation beyond technology transfer and spinouts to include partnerships, skills, communities and social impact.

Announcing a new 拢10 million University Founders Fund to help students, staff and alumni turn promising ideas into viable businesses, Professor Aline Miller, Associate Vice-President for Enterprise and Chief Scientific Officer at Unit M at The University of Manchester, said: 鈥淚nnovation is for everyone, and it鈥檚 not just about technology. It鈥檚 about doing new things, new ways.鈥� Professor John Holden, Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation and Chief Executive Officer, Unit M added: 鈥淲e like to talk about those $1 billion unicorns. But innovation is really about helping solve societal challenges.鈥� He aspired to 91直播 becoming home to the first 鈥渟ocial unicorn鈥� using innovation to improve one billion people鈥檚 lives.

Founder and University of Manchester board member at Mattillion, Matt Scullion agreed that 91直播 is poised for success in the global community by 2035: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lovely turnabout that I think other city regions in the UK and Europe are looking to 91直播 as this beacon of innovation and growth. And, you know, that鈥檚 not been an overnight thing, but it鈥檚 also not stopping.鈥�

Planning for 91直播 as a centre for inclusive innovation

A panel chaired by Elvira Uyarra, Professor of Innovation Studies at Alliance 91直播 Business School and Executive Director of the , asked how the University鈥檚 ambition for Europe鈥檚 most inclusive innovation ecosystem might translate into delivery. Dr Julian Skyrme, Executive Director of Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement, framed inclusion around three questions鈥攊nnovation for whom, by whom, and how鈥攁rguing that affected communities must help shape decisions.

Professor Johannes Gl眉ckler (University of Munich) urged 91直播 to build relationships between currently disconnected sectors, citing Coventry鈥檚 linking of automotive and gaming clusters. Professor Meric Gertler (University of Toronto) said research excellence alone does not guarantee local benefit, but universities can deliberately change that, backed by 鈥渓ocal, patient鈥� capital.

Lisa Dale-Clough, Director Economy at Greater 91直播 Combined Authority, highlighted the Atom Valley innovation district in Rochdale and said inclusive innovation must improve job quality and solve local problems.

91直播's impact in early-stage ventures

From life sciences spinouts to next-generation diagnostics, innovators at the Festival shared what it takes to turn promising research into real-world solutions. Dr Alexander Stokes, a founder of Imprinted Diagnostics, described his mission to build a portable blood-testing platform based on innovative molecular imprinted polymer technology. He鈥檚 grown the company from a two-person team to a wider network of 30 collaborators and is now looking to the US for investors. Professor Sam Butterworth (Apini Therapeutics) highlighted how University support, translational funding and investor backing helped transform early-stage research into a multimillion-pound venture now advancing towards clinical trials. Across the session, speakers emphasised the importance of collaboration, persistence and learning from setbacks. As Matt Scullion, founder of Manchester AI and data unicorn Matillion, reflected: 鈥淲e've got this deep reservoir of academic and scientific expertise here... I think we can figure out ways to put it together and build the consequential companies of tomorrow better.鈥�

Announcements and developments

• The University of Manchester is launching a 拢10m Founders Fund to provide crucial pre-seed investment for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Read the full story.

Coming up

Students at 91直播 won鈥檛 want to miss Tuesday鈥檚 MEC Ideas Unlocked event, 10:00-16:00, The Atrium, University Place. Find out more 鈫�

Join one of Tuesday鈥檚 fringe sessions, including a panel session 鈥淏uilding companies that are rooted in the North but Global in mindset鈥� sponsored by Northern Gritstone, 10:15-12:00, Whitworth Art Gallery. Reserve your spot 鈫�

The research, funded by The Christie Charity and led by scientists at The University of Manchester, aims to transform how doctors detect breast cancer that develops during or just after pregnancy, which is often discovered late when the cancer has already spread, which leads to poorer survival rates.

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in women aged 35鈥�64 in the UK, and is increasing twice as fast in women under 50 compared to women over 50. While breastfeeding is generally associated with lowering the long-term risk of developing breast cancer, risk rises during pregnancy and after giving birth and gradually falls over the following decade.

The study, called BRACELET-BM, has started recruiting participants at the Nightingale Centre in Wythenshawe, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). One of the first mothers to donate breast milk is married mum-of -three, Hannah Brennan, 31, from Glossop in Derbyshire who has a 12-month-old baby girl, Ada, as well as a five-year old daughter and a two-year-old son.

The registered midwife who is currently studying for a PhD at The University of Manchester said: 鈥淎s soon as I saw the research team were looking to recruit women who were breast-feeding, I wanted to do it. As I鈥檓 doing my doctorate, I鈥檓 passionate about people being involved in research. My paternal grandmother died aged 51 from breast cancer and sadly I never met her. However, I was named after her and I鈥檓 told I look like her so I鈥檓 doing this for her as well as my two daughters.

鈥淧articipating in the BRACELET-BM study was really straight-forward. I just gave a blood sample and donated some breast milk and answered a few questions. As a midwife I feel it鈥檚 really important to help other women, so if my small contribution can benefit other mothers in the future, I鈥檓 just glad to be able to make a difference and would encourage other breastfeeding mums to take part.鈥�

Pregnancy-Related Breast Cancer, diagnosed during pregnancy or shortly afterwards, occurs in approximately 1 in 3,000 pregnancies in the general population. Among women at very high risk of breast cancer, such as BRCA gene carriers, rates have been reported as high as 1 in 50 pregnancies. Between 35-50% of breast cancer cases in women under 55 years of age are within 10 years of having a baby and 5% of breast cancer in women under 45 are within a year of giving birth. Better breast cancer screening is needed especially in younger women.

The BRACELET-BM study is led by Dr Niki Flaum from The University of Manchester, in partnership with Dr Florent Mouliere at the CRUK National Biomarker Centre. Professor Sacha Howell, consultant oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and MFT is a co-lead on the study.

Dr Niki Flaum who is also a consultant oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust said: 鈥淭here is an urgent need to find better, more reliable ways to detect breast cancer in women during and after pregnancy. We believe breast milk may provide a unique and non-invasive window into what is happening inside the breast. We know surprising little about the genetic changes to breast milk, as this bio-fluid has been remarkably under-researched until now.

鈥淧regnancy-related breast cancer is more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage, when the cancer has already spread, and survival outcomes are significantly worse compared with women of the same age who have not recently given birth. Diagnosis is particularly challenging because breast imaging during pregnancy and lactation is often unreliable.

鈥淭hanks to The Christie Charity鈥檚 support, 91直播 has the opportunity to lead internationally in developing a completely new approach to breast cancer detection. If reliable methods for detecting cancer-related DNA in breast milk can be found, we hope future research will test whether this approach could be developed into a screening tool for women with breast cancer or those at high risk.鈥�

Initially the study will recruit 40 lactating women, 25 with general population risk and 15 from a high-risk category where there is a family history of breast cancer. Researchers will collect breast milk and blood samples from patients at the Nightingale Centre and Saint Mary鈥檚 Hospital, also part of MFT, to develop a 91直播 Breast Biofluid Biobank with more than 200 samples available for future research.

The team within the Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre, part of the University of Manchester will analyse the samples of fluid.

Dr Florent Mouliere, who leads a research team at the Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre in 91直播 where the samples of breast fluid are being analysed said: 鈥淪cientists in our laboratories have identified tiny fragments of genetic material shed by cells in some samples of breast milk that have been donated for this study. The DNA structure is unique in breast milk, and we now understand what this DNA looks like which is a major step forward.

鈥淲e now need to focus on the main aim of this study, which is to explore how best to collect the samples, work out if they can be safely frozen in a domestic freezer (which would be a convenient method for a nursing mum), what time of day is best for a sample to be collected, and if other factors such as an infection in the mother or baby would affect the sample results.鈥� An international study (September 2023) showed that circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) could be detected in breast milk, but the best methods for collecting, processing and storing breast milk for this purpose have not yet been established.

Alongside donating blood and breast milk samples, participants will complete questionnaires and interviews to assess how acceptable this approach is, ensuring any future screening method is practical as well as effective.

Lousie Hadley, chief executive of The Christie Charity, said 鈥淲e are very pleased to be able to fund this important research which could improve early detection of breast cancer in high-risk women, including BRCA carrier, enable screening specifically for pregnancy-related breast cancer and help predict risk of postpartum breast cancer. It would also provide reassurance for high-risk women wishing to breastfeed, who are currently often advised to stop early so MRI screening can resume.

鈥淭his support is part of The Christie Charity鈥檚 commitment to providing 拢30 million of much-needed funding by 2030 to enable our brightest researchers to make game-changing discoveries right here in 91直播. We are very grateful for the continued support of all our donors in helping us reach this goal.鈥�

The initial feasibility study for BRACELET-BM was funded by Prevent Breast Cancer, Cancer Research UK and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

For more information on how to take part in this research and donate breast milk and a blood sample should email the-christie.bracelet-BM@nhs.net or call 0161 918 7694. Anyone wishing to donate to The Christie Charity can visit Help support research at The Christie Dr Niki Flaum and Professor Sacha Howell are both part of the Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Theme at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): 91直播, which aims to develop screening strategies and biomarkers to identify cancer and cancer risk sooner.

The University has set an initial goal of raising 拢10 million for the Fund, predominantly through philanthropic support.

So far, the Founders Fund has received a 拢2m commitment from the University and a 拢1m philanthropic gift from alumnus and technology entrepreneur Kevin Lomax.

The announcement marks the beginning of a week-long programme of activity across the University's inaugural Innovation Festival.

The Founders Fund will address a critical funding gap facing students, staff, and alumni entrepreneurs as they turn ideas into viable businesses. Alongside investment, founders will be connected to Unit M鈥檚 wider innovation ecosystem, giving them access to support, expertise, and networks as they launch and grow their ventures. As ventures develop, they will be better positioned to attract further private investment, including potential seed-stage backing from investors such as Northern Gritstone.

It will provide founder-friendly equity investment to high-potential start up and spin out ventures affiliated with the University, helping entrepreneurs launch and grow ambitious companies, attract follow-on private investment, and retain entrepreneurial talent within the region.

The Fund is part of Challenge Accepted, the University鈥檚 ambitious initiative bringing together it鈥檚 global community to tackle major challenges, unlock new ideas and turn innovation into positive impact.

Returns from successful investment will be reinvested in future ventures, helping to support successive generations of university entrepreneurs.

Over time, the Fund will contribute to the University鈥檚 ambition to create Europe鈥檚 most inclusive and impactful innovation ecosystem by 2035, while generating lasting financial, economic, and reputational value for the University and the region.

Professor Aline Miller, Associate Vice President (Enterprise) and CSO, Unit M at The University of Manchester, said:

鈥淚 am incredibly excited to be launching the Founders Fund. It represents a strong commitment from the University to our innovation agenda and to backing talented students, colleagues and alumni who have the ambition to turn great ideas into high-growth ventures. I am looking forward to seeing the quality of ideas that come through the pipeline and helping more founders take their first steps towards impact.鈥�

Kevin Lomax, University of Manchester alumnus and entrepreneur said:

鈥淭he University of Manchester has fantastic technology, research, and graduates, as well as an incredible culture and environment. I want to see it become a real heartbeat of the UK. I hope the Founders Fund will help create a legacy, supporting entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into businesses, creating jobs, and helping drive economic growth.鈥�

Investments are expected to range from 拢25,000 to 拢250,000, typically in exchange for a small, non-controlling equity stake.

The inaugural call for applications is expected to open in January 2027.

End

91直播 has been ranked eighth in the UK for another year whilst falling slightly by four places to 60 overall in the world in the latest 2027 rankings of 2,297 universities. Its overall score is 74.8, a marginal decrease of 0.1 points compared with the previous year.

It follows progress in the latest domestic league tables, with 91直播 rising 15 places to 20th in the Guardian University Guide 2027 and being named Northwest University of the Year in The Sunday Times Good University Guide.

The results come as the University begins to implement 91直播 2035, its ten-year strategy to strengthen excellence in teaching, learning and research. It also underlines the need to improve 91直播鈥檚 international position in an increasingly competitive global higher education environment.

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said: 鈥�91直播 remains one of the UK鈥檚 leading universities, but we recognise that our global position has declined and that we need to improve.

鈥�91直播 2035 sets out how we will build on our strengths, raise the quality and consistency of our teaching and research and translate more of our discoveries into benefits for society. This will take sustained effort across the University, but we have a clear strategy and a strong foundation from which to make progress.鈥�

Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research of The University of Manchester, said: 鈥淭he recent suite of university rankings are a useful gauge for us as we begin to put our strategy into practice.

鈥淏y bringing together outstanding research, new ideas and partnerships, 91直播 makes a substantial positive difference to communities locally, nationally and globally.

鈥淩ankings don鈥檛 measure everything we value, or everything universities contribute to society. But they do give us a useful indication of where we can keep improving. I鈥檓 grateful for the continuing hard work of colleagues across the University and for their commitment to our students, our research and the communities we serve.鈥�

The Times Higher Education assessment looks at universities across teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook.

A University of Manchester undergraduate has won second place in the Cambridge Edge AI Innovation for Sustainability Challenge 2026 with a concept designed to improve early wildfire detection whilst reducing reliance on energy-intensive data centres.

PyroWatch, developed by Computer Science student Marwan Barakat Abdelfattah, proposes a network of affordable devices that can analyse local weather and environmental conditions to help predict wildfire risk and support faster response.

The project was named runner-up in the national competition, which challenged UK university students to design AI systems that can learn from each other without exchanging raw data between edge nodes or uploading raw data to the cloud.

Marwan received a 拢2,000 prize for his second-place finish.

How PyroWatch works

Wildfires are becoming an increasingly urgent sustainability challenge, with devastating consequences for communities, livelihoods, food production, public health and carbon emissions. PyroWatch was inspired by the growing visibility of wildfires in places such as California, as well as the need for more accessible tools that could help governments, fire services, local authorities and businesses prepare for and respond to fires earlier.

The concept uses solar-powered devices with batteries to run small AI models close to where data is generated. By processing information locally rather than relying on constant data transmission to central servers, the system is designed to reduce communications, energy use and dependence on data centres.

Unlike some existing wildfire monitoring approaches, which can depend on expensive thermal cameras and fixed infrastructure, PyroWatch is intended to be low-cost, scalable and deployable across high-risk landscapes, industrial sites and remote locations. Marwan said the system could also learn from local coordinates and previous fire conditions to estimate where risks may emerge or continue.

Marwan Barakat Abdelfattah said: 鈥淏eing selected as a finalist and winning second place means a lot. It was the first time I had produced an independent research document of this kind, and I learned so much through the process. It showed me how much work researchers put into producing credible ideas that could make a real-world difference.鈥�

The Cambridge Edge AI Innovation for Sustainability Challenge 2026 is hosted by MICROP Inc. and its sister company Arculus System in partnership with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). The competition invited students to explore AI approaches that keep data local, operate within limited computing and energy resources, and exchange knowledge to create collective intelligence across distributed systems.

James Yang, CEO and Co-founder of MICROIP Inc. and Arculus System, said: "Well done to the talented creator behind Pyro Watch on a brilliant individual submission. The creativity shown in tackling real-world environmental monitoring and thermal management through intelligent, localized AI design is highly commendable. It is inspiring to see such fresh thinking from a solo innovator, and this unique perspective holds great promise for shaping a safer, more sustainable future."

Viola Jardon, Head of Innovation Programmes at CISL, said: 鈥淭he future of AI cannot simply be about using more data, more computing power and more energy to become smarter. The real innovation challenge is how we create greater intelligence within real-world constraints. This challenge was all about giving the next generation of UK talent the opportunity to explore AI that can collaborate while keeping data local, use resources more intelligently, and ultimately deliver more sustainable outcomes.鈥�

Further information is available at: .

Applications are now open for the second cohort of the: Greater 91直播鈥檚 programme for researchers, technical founders and early-stage ventures turning scientific and engineering breakthroughs into investment-ready ventures. 7鈥�10 ventures will be selected, with applications open to eligible teams across Greater 91直播.

Delivered by Unit M, The University of Manchester's innovation unit, and backed by Greater 91直播 Investment Zone funding, the programme runs from November 2026 to April 2027. Applications close 19 October 2026.

The deep tech accelerator is designed specifically for founders and researchers developing technologies rooted in significant scientific discoveries or engineering advances.

Unlike traditional startup programmes, it focuses on the unique challenges associated with commercialising deep tech innovations, helping participants navigate the journey from breakthrough research to investable business.

Many early-stage deep tech innovations need focused support to navigate the journey from research and development to commercial and societal impact.

Earlier in 2026, cohort 1 supported 10 deep tech ventures from across the University and the region working on next-generation health technologies, clean energy, advanced materials, agritech and space technologies.

Patrick Sarsfield, Founder and CEO of Graphene Thermal, and a member of the deep tech accelerator cohort #, said: 鈥淭he Unit M deep tech accelerator is what we needed to prepare ourselves to be investment ready. All of the mentorship and guidance that we鈥檝e had has come through the university support system. It鈥檚 really been at the centre of getting this business off the ground.鈥�

Tim Bailey, Founder and CEO of WarmTronics, and a member of the deep tech accelerator cohort #1, said: 鈥淭he accelerator helped us move forward in our commercialisation journey. Funding allowed us to do marketing and customer discovery that we initially wouldn't be able to afford. Off the back of that, we did an exhibition in London, we met with a major supermarket chain and we're now looking at trialling our products with them.鈥�

Why apply?

Teams selected for cohort #2 of the programme will receive 拢25,000 in equity-free funding, alongside dedicated commercialisation support, access to specialist mentors and industry experts, customer discovery and market validation frameworks, and training on how to pitch effectively to investors.

Each venture will also benefit from support from experienced University of Manchester MBA students and the opportunity to present to investors and strategic partners at a dedicated demo day.

The programme is open to researchers, founders and spinouts from universities across Greater 91直播, as well as technical founders from the region's wider deep tech community. Building on the success of the inaugural cohort, cohort #2 will place an increased emphasis on engaging teams from across the city-region, reflecting a continued commitment to strengthening Greater 91直播's deep tech ecosystem.

What is deep tech?

Deep tech refers to technologies built on significant scientific discoveries or engineering advances that create new capabilities and solve real-world problems.

Areas of interest for the programme include:

路 Advanced materials and manufacturing;

路 Quantum technologies;

路 Artificial intelligence and data infrastructure;

路 Biotechnology and health technologies;

路 Climate and energy technologies;

路 Robotics and automation;

路 And space and aerospace technologies.

Who is eligible?

We are looking for teams or individuals based in Greater 91直播 who are ready to spend six months building towards investment. We are looking for:

• Researchers whose work has commercial potential you haven't yet acted on, or
• Technical founders with a working prototype or early validation.

Not sure if you鈥檙e eligible? Come along to our on 29 September and 12 October or ask us directly by emailing community@unit-m.co.uk. Or join us at the on 7 October, during the Innovation Festival, where we will have a stand and can answer your questions.

Ready to apply?

Applications close 19 October 2026, with space for 7鈥�10 teams in cohort #2.

Further details on eligibility, information sessions and the application process are available via the on Unit M鈥檚 website.

Key dates

• Applications close: 19 October 2026
• Information sessions: 29 September and 12 October 2026
• Programme delivery: November 2026 to April 2027

Why Greater 91直播, why now?

The deep tech accelerator is part of a wider ambition to make Greater 91直播 a leading hub for deep tech innovation, supported through the Greater 91直播 Combined Authority鈥檚 (GMCA) Investment Zone funding. It is designed to help strengthen the region鈥檚 growing deep tech ecosystem by connecting founders with expertise, networks and opportunities for growth.

Bridging the gap between research and commercialisation, the programme provides the expertise, connections and support needed to help turn deep tech innovation into investable businesses with the potential for significant societal and economic impact.

Four 91直播 academics made Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering has today announced that four academics from The University of Manchester, Professors Danielle George, Alan Partridge, and Rich Curry, and Visiting Professor Kirsty Armer will be part of the newest cohort of leading figures in the field of technology and engineering to be appointed Fellows.

They will be joining the Academy in its 50th year and are part of a cohort of 75 new Fellows, who are making an incredible impact across the engineering and technology sector with innovations in clean energy, AI, medicine and public health; joining leading figures who have influenced academia and business, worked to widen participation in engineering for people from underrepresented backgrounds, and provided expert policy advice to government.

Professors George, Armer, Partridge, and Curry will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 19 October, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy鈥檚 aim to engineer better lives.

Sir John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

鈥淭his year鈥檚 cohort will be joining a community of over 1,700 top engineers and innovators in the UK and around the world. Together, we ensure that bright ideas are supported, scaled and shared, turning ambition into innovation and innovation into impact. We aim to strengthen education, skills and inclusion to inspire and equip the engineers of today and tomorrow.鈥�

91直播 Academics awarded prestigious Colin Campbell Mitchell Award

The Academy has also awarded Professors Barry Lennox (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and Michael Fisher (Computer Science) the prestigious Colin Campbell Mitchell Award, given to a team of engineers who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of any field of UK engineering across the past four years. Visiting Professor Kirsty Hewitson was also part of the team receiving the Academy honour.

This year, it is given in recognition of the pioneering approach that the University of Manchester has been taking in its approach to developing robotic systems for deployment in hazardous environments.

Their work has delivered significant engineering, safety and economic benefits, including robotic deployments that reduce human exposure to dangerous environments, estimated savings of around 拢20 million for Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and a projected future value of 拢500 million through wider adoption of the technologies developed. They have also pioneered the use of digital twins and simulation environments to improve safety, training and operational efficiency, while contributing to the development of robotics policy and responsible AI practices in the UK and internationally.

Chair of the Academy鈥檚 Awards Committee, Luke Logan (FREng), said of the research,

"By translating robotics and AI research into real-world industrial applications, this team has transformed how hazardous and complex engineering tasks can be carried out. Their work is reducing risks to people, improving productivity and delivering substantial economic benefits across multiple sectors. Through an outstanding collaboration spanning industry, academia and the public sector, they have demonstrated how engineering innovation can deliver real-world impact."

In her role as Visiting Professor, Dr Hewitson will help to embed key principles for translating and commercialising innovations, as well as provide mentoring to underrepresented students, building industry links to provide future career opportunities.

Dr Hewitson, a distinguished expert in the translation and commercialisation of technologies across energy, defence and life science sectors, is visiting from the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration (RAICo) 鈥� an end-user led collaboration between the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd, AWE Nuclear Security Technologies and The University of Manchester.

In her role at UKAEA and as Director of RAICo, Dr Hewitson oversees the development of robotics for nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering, working with industry, academic and international partners to help remove people from hazardous environments and achieve safer, faster and more cost-effective solutions.

Prior to RAICo, Dr Hewitson had previously held positions as Chief Executive Officer at Innovate UK KTN, Vice-President of Strategy and Innovation at the National Nuclear Laboratory and Vice-President of Life Sciences at Ploughshare Innovations.

Dr Hewitson said of the announcement, 鈥淚 feel privileged to have been appointed as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester. I have seen first-hand how essential our relationship with academia is for connecting different ideas from different fields in ways that would not otherwise be apparent."

A new test to identify cells collected from urine and vaginal fluid could help rule out womb and other cancers in most women who experience bleeding after the menopause, find University of Manchester researchers.

Their study published in Lon 22/09/26 say the test could potentially reduce the need for invasive hospital investigations, easing anxiety during what can be a distressing time for many women.

The research team, also based at 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): 91直播, showed that the new test can detect womb cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, with high accuracy.

Postmenopausal bleeding currently triggers urgent investigation for possible cancer, often involving a series of uncomfortable, invasive and costly tests, even though most women will not ultimately receive a cancer diagnosis.

Further work from the group, also published in the same journal today, showed that current tests are poorly calibrated for people from Black ethnic backgrounds, leading to health inequalities in diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes.

However, the new test was particularly effective at detecting aggressive and advanced cancers, and performed exceptionally well in Black women, who are twice as likely to die from womb cancer as White women in the UK.

The researchers say the new test could therefore help to reduce health inequities and improve outcomes for previously disadvantaged groups, including those who are unable to tolerate routine procedures.

The test could eventually be used in primary care and other community settings, helping speed up diagnosis and provide reassurance for many women.

Womb cancer affects nearly 10,000 women in the UK each year, but only 5鈥�10% of women investigated for bleeding after the menopause will have cancer.

Despite that, most undergo invasive hospital tests that can be uncomfortable, costly and sometimes need repeating.

Previous studies led by 91直播 researchers have suggested cancer cells can be detected in urine and vaginal fluid samples.

The DETECT study - as it is known - was designed to assess whether these simple, non-invasive tests could accurately identify women at risk while safely reassuring others.

The study involved 1,864 women attending hospitals *with postmenopausal bleeding, making it one of the largest evaluations of this approach to date.

Before having their routine clinical investigations, participants provided a urine sample and a vaginal fluid sample, which were examined for abnormal cells by specialist cytopathologists who did not know the women鈥檚 diagnoses.

A total of 115 women were found to have cancer, including 99 cases of womb cancer and a smaller number of other pelvic cancers.

When urine and vaginal cytology (cell sample) results were combined, the test correctly identified more than 80% of cancers and achieved a negative predictive value of 98.8% for womb cancer, meaning women with a negative result were highly unlikely to have the disease.

The vaginal test performed slightly better than the urine test alone, although both showed promising diagnostic accuracy.

The test detected almost all aggressive cancers, identifying 95.8% of high-grade tumours and 96.4% of cancers that had already spread beyond the uterus.

It also picked up 100% of cancers in Black women with 96% specificity, meaning that the test showed near perfect performance in this small subgroup of women.

The findings suggest the approach could become a valuable triage tool, helping clinicians decide which women need urgent invasive investigations while providing reassurance for many others.

Lead researcher Professor from The University of Manchester and Honorary Consultant in Gynaecological Oncology at MFT, said: 鈥淏leeding after the menopause is understandably alarming for women because it can be a sign of cancer, but the vast majority of those investigated will not have the disease.

鈥淎t the moment, many women face invasive, uncomfortable tests that can be stressful as well as costly for health services before cancer can be ruled out.

鈥淥ur study shows that a simple test using urine and vaginal samples could help identify the women most likely to have cancer while safely reassuring many others much earlier in the diagnostic pathway.

鈥淚f further studies confirm these findings in routine practice, this approach has the potential to transform care for thousands of women every year.鈥�

Prof Davidson, who is also Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Theme Co-Lead at the NIHR BRC: 91直播, added: 鈥淔urther studies are now needed to assess how the test would perform in routine clinical practice and whether it can reduce the number of invasive procedures women undergo.

鈥淚f successfully introduced into healthcare settings, the test could offer a faster, less invasive and more patient-friendly route to diagnosing womb cancer.鈥�

• The study was funded by The Jon Moulton Charity Trust and the women were recruited from gynaecology clinics at seven hospital sites across North West England: St Mary鈥檚 Hospital, Trafford General Hospital, Wythenshawe Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital, North 91直播 General Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital and Tameside Hospital.
• The paper Urine and vaginal cytology for endometrial cancer detection in women with postmenopausal bleeding: the Developing Tests for Endometrial Cancer detection (DETECT) diagnostic accuracy study is available here: DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/

Publication details

The study was published in xxx journal.

DOI: http://xxx.

Three new Future Leaders Fellowships are empowering 91直播 researchers to tackle very different scientific challenges 鈥� from predicting extreme ocean waves to designing miniature biological factories to wearable health technology that transcends health inequalities 鈥� with potentially far-reaching consequences.

Backed by a combined 拢5.4 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Dr Samuel Draycott, Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer and Dr Richard Obexer are among the recipients of its 2026 Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) awards. The funding will support four years of ambitious research in fields spanning ocean engineering, biotechnology and digital enabled health.

The Future Leaders Fellowships: at a glance

• How well we understand the ocean matters increasingly for the infrastructure we build, the energy we generate and our response to climate change. is investigating what happens when waves break in the complex conditions found in the ocean, with real implications for how we design offshore wind farms and other marine infrastructure, and for improving the accuracy of climate and ocean models that predict how the sea absorbs and releases carbon dioxide and other gases.
• Across 91直播's communities, is taking research directly into patients鈥� homes 鈥� creating a real-world test environment to help make wearable health technologies a routine part of cancer care. He's working to discover whether continuous data from wearable devices can help NHS clinical teams support patients through cancer surgery, and how to make sure this new model of care reaches everyone, including those at risk of digital exclusion.

• Meanwhile, in another laboratory in 91直播, has been looking at the world on a different scale 鈥� exploring how nature packages enzymes inside tiny structures in living cells. He鈥檚 working to discover whether those same principles can be engineered to manufacture medicines, recycle carbon and produce valuable chemicals more efficiently.

Dr Samuel Draycott: Wavebreak

Offshore wind farms, ships and other marine structures all need to withstand the most powerful waves the ocean can produce, but many engineering models simplify the sea in ways that don鈥檛 fully reflect real-world conditions. This potentially affects how accurately we can predict the forces these structures will face.听

Recent work by Dr Draycott and collaborators, published in Nature, . Through this fellowship, Dr Draycott and his colleagues will build on this research to recreate even more realistic ocean conditions in their laboratory, combining waves travelling in different directions with currents that change speed with depth, as they do in the real ocean.听

The team will study what happens when waves break and what happens in the seconds afterwards, including how they move particles such as microplastics and phytoplankton, draw air into the ocean and transfer gases such as CO2 between the sea and atmosphere. This could improve our understanding of everything from pollution and marine ecosystems to the ocean鈥檚 role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.听

Dr Draycott, Senior Lecturer in Ocean Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management, University of Manchester, said:听
鈥淲e鈥檝e long relied on simplified models to understand how waves behave, but the real ocean is much more complex.

鈥淭his matters because engineers use estimates of extreme waves when designing offshore wind turbines, ships and platforms, so a better understanding of wave breaking could help us improve the safety and efficiency of this infrastructure. These are crucial industries, with the UK aiming to increase its offshore wind capacity to at least and a sector already employing tens of thousands of people .鈥澨�

The research, funded with 拢1.67m from UKRI, will take place in the University鈥檚 new Hydrodynamics Laboratory, using high-performance computer simulations and laboratory experiments to measure how waves break, how much air they draw into the water, and how they move particles.

Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer: 91直播 Digital Health Living Lab

Wearable devices can monitor vital signs such as heart rate, activity and sleep, providing clinicians with valuable data to inform on-going patient care. The NHS 10 Year Health Plan identifies them as one of its 鈥�5 Big Bets鈥� for transforming healthcare, but their use across the health service remains patchy, with benefits not reaching all communities equally. Through his fellowship, Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer will establish the 91直播 Digital Health Living Lab, a real-world testbed where patients, families, community organisations, clinicians, researchers, industry partners, and local government work together to design and evaluate wearable-enabled care.

The 拢2.4m-UKRI funded programme is built around three strands. The first will work with communities to understand what helps or hinders people in adopting wearables, with a focus on accessibility, trust, usability and digital inclusion. The second will develop secure systems that connect wearable data to electronic health records and explore how continuous streams of patient-generated data can be transformed into clinically meaningful real-time information to support care. The third will embed a wearable-enabled clinical trial, working with approximately 800 patients undergoing lung and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery to trial adoption and evaluate their potential to improve health outcomes.

Findings will help shape the future use of wearable technologies across healthcare and inform the development of digitally enabled hospitals and care pathways in Greater 91直播 and beyond.

Dr Hughes-Noehrer, Lecturer in Mobile and Wearable Health Technology in the Division of Informatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences, and Lead for Computational Medicine at 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust said:

鈥淎s someone who works at the intersection of healthcare and research, I see first-hand how health inequalities can affect who benefits from new models of care and emerging technologies. Wearables have huge potential to provide more personalised, proactive support, but only if everyone can access, use and trust them. By working directly with our communities in 91直播, I want to build a model for wearable-enabled care that is fair, safe and trusted, and that other places in the UK and beyond can follow.鈥�

Dr Richard Obexer: De Novo Biomolecular Condensates for Programmable Assembly of Enzyme Cascades

Inside our cells are tiny droplets that act a little like miniature factories. Without being surrounded by a membrane, they can bring particular proteins and enzymes together, allowing chemical reactions to happen faster and more efficiently.

These structures known as 鈥榖iomolecular condensates鈥�, occur widely inside living cells, and Dr Richard Obexer is exploring whether we can recreate this natural trick, then engineer it to make useful products more efficiently.

His new fellowship, funded by 拢1.3m from UKRI, will enable him to combine AI-powered protein design with a laboratory process inspired by natural evolution, to rapidly test thousands of protein variations. The aim is to create molecules that can encourage these droplets to form around a much wider range of enzymes, while controlling what happens inside them. This could give researchers unprecedented control over the conditions inside each biological factory.

The team will initially test their approach by building a five-enzyme system to manufacture islatravir, an anti-HIV drug that鈥檚 currently made using conventional chemical synthesis. Next, they will explore whether a ten-enzyme system could turn CO2 and methanol into starch, potentially creating a route for converting captured carbon into useful materials. Finally, they鈥檒l rebuild a biosynthetic pathway in bacteria to produce trunkamide, an anti-cancer compound that has proven difficult to manufacture at a useful scale.

Dr Obexer, BBSRC Discovery Fellow in Chemical Biology and Biological Chemistry, in the Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, said:

鈥淣ature has already evolved incredibly efficient ways of organising chemistry inside cells, and we鈥檙e now asking whether we can recreate and engineer these to build tiny biological factories for ourselves. If we can combine that with AI-designed proteins, we could make entirely new manufacturing processes possible, from medicines to ways of turning captured carbon into useful products.鈥�

The University of Manchester and the Jeremy Coller Foundation have announced the finalists for the Coller AI Competition with one early-stage venture set to receive a 拢100,000 equity investment to help turn it鈥檚 responsible AI innovation into a growing venture.

The competition attracted applicants from student, colleagues and alumni and brings together the University鈥檚 research strength, entrepreneurial talent and commitment to responsible innovation. It aims to identify and support founders developing AI solutions that are not only commercially promising but designed to benefit people and society.

The shortlisted Teams are:

Health Equity Chain

Health Equity Chain is building the Treatment Analyser System, an AI tool that helps doctors and patients make better prostate cancer treatment decisions. It shows a patient where they stand among people like them, making complex clinical information clear, understandable and equitable.

LanthaGen Bio Ltd

LanthaGen Bio has built an AI platform that simulates how biomolecules (proteins and peptides) bind metals, so new metal capturing proteins can be designed on a computer instead of found by trial and error. By drastically shortening the process it removes the energy, chemicals, plastic and solvent waste that repeated screening consumes.

SporeSense

SporeSense has built an AI-powered early-warning system that detects crop disease before any symptoms are visible. This lets farmers act early, cutting crop losses, reducing unnecessary pesticide use, and supporting more resilient, sustainable food production as climate change increases pressure on global agriculture.

SenseVale

SenseVale makes smart glasses that help blind and partially sighted people independently navigate their surroundings with minimal assistance. Sensors in the frame pick up what is around you, and the glasses tell you what they find through sound and vibration.

Forkprint Ltd

Forkprint is developing AI-enabled models that analyse any given food business鈥� data, such as recipes, menus and supplier information, to provide accurate greenhouse gas emissions GHGE information. This will enable food service businesses to assess and track the GHGE coming from their ingredients and food preparation processes, as well as rapidly develop lower-carbon recipes.

The initiative forms part of The University of Manchester鈥檚 Challenge Accepted campaign, which supports ideas with the potential to tackle major global challenges.

The Coller AI Competition is supported by the Jeremy Coller Foundation, the philanthropic vehicle of private equity entrepreneur Jeremy Coller. The Foundation supports initiatives focused on education, entrepreneurship, pensions innovation and the transition to a more sustainable food system. By supporting ambitious ideas, the Foundation helps drive lasting change and empowers the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.

The winner will be announced at The University of Manchester Innovation Festival on the 9^th of October 2026.

The University of Manchester Innovation Festival takes place Monday 5th October to Friday 9th October 2026

/collaborate/innovation-festival/events/?utm_source=insider&utm_medium=digital_newsletter&utm_campaign=innovationfestival26

The three-year appointment will support research, teaching and knowledge exchange at the intersection of artificial intelligence, creative practice, copyright and digital provenance. It builds on a collaboration initiated through Creative 91直播, beginning with Melchior鈥檚 two-day visit to the University in May 2026.

An artist, composer and creative technologist, Melchior has spent more than 25 years exploring how music, science and emerging technology can reshape creative experience. His projects range from pioneering an artist website with David Bowie and helping shape Bj枚rk Digital and the Vulnicura VR album, to Massive Attack鈥檚 Fantom app and Mezzanine DNA experiment. He is founder of Genotone and creator of The Logos, a cathedral-scale collaborative installation with MIT that transforms signals from deep space into spatial sound.

He also advises UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright convened by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In this work, he represents organisations whose combined membership includes around 30,000 artists: the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition and Association for Electronic Music.

Building on 鈥淧roof of Human鈥�

Creative 91直播 welcomed Melchior to the University in May 2026 for a programme of public engagement, student learning and interdisciplinary exchange around AI and creative authorship. Colleagues from Computer Science, Law and Humanities joined representatives from Greater 91直播鈥檚 creative sector to explore the challenges and opportunities generative AI presents for the creative and intellectual property sectors.

At the centre of the visit was 鈥淧roof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship鈥�, a public lecture held at SISTER in 91直播鈥檚 innovation district. Melchior examined how creative work can be attributed, protected and rewarded as generative AI becomes more widely used, making the case for reliable systems that verify authorship and trace the provenance of creative material.

He also led a masterclass for undergraduate and postgraduate music and composition students on moving music from studio to release while maintaining provenance and control of intellectual property. The visit created opportunities for collaboration across Computer Science, the School of Law and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Connecting expertise across disciplines and sectors

As Honorary Professor, Melchior will work with colleagues across the University over the next three years to develop research, teaching and knowledge exchange focused on AI, creativity and authorship. He will contribute to collaborative research into provenance technologies and their practical application within creative ecosystems, helping to translate emerging technical approaches into policy, industry and cultural contexts.

He will also support student learning through guest lectures, workshops and the co-supervision of PhD projects. The appointment will help shape interdisciplinary opportunities connecting computing, music, law, archives and public policy, while providing a foundation for future funding bids and longer-term partnerships in responsible and trustworthy AI.

September visit and podcast

Melchior will return to the University from 21-25 September 2026 for an engagement programme celebrating his new role. He will deliver a seminar for the Department of Computer Science and take part in research and knowledge exchange meetings with colleagues from across the University. The programme will explore potential collaborations connecting computing, the creative industries, policy and the cultural sector.

The visit will coincide with the release of a podcast episode on creative ownership, featuring Melchior in conversation with Parvathy Nair, a postgraduate researcher in AI and patent law. Part of a series on the ethics of AI in the cultural and creative industries, the episode considers how artists can retain ownership of their work within the current technological and regulatory landscape.

Supporting 91直播 2035

The collaboration aligns with From 91直播 for the world, the University鈥檚 strategy to 2035. The strategy seeks to define what a great university looks like for the 21st century by creating knowledge for the public good, locally and globally. By connecting computer science with the creative industries, cultural organisations, law and policymaking, the appointment supports the University鈥檚 commitments to interdisciplinary research, partnership, responsible AI and translating research excellence into practical impact.

鈥淐reative work is becoming fluid. It can be copied, transformed and recombined at machine speed, while authorship and ownership struggle to keep up,鈥� said Andrew. 鈥淭his appointment is an opportunity to bring computer scientists, artists, lawyers and policymakers together to build practical systems that keep identity and provenance attached to creative work.鈥�

"I am delighted to welcome Andrew Melchior as Honorary Professor in Computer Science here in 91直播," said Professor Andrew Stewart, Head of the Department of Computer Science. 鈥淗e has a unique perspective at the intersection of AI, provenance, and creativity drawn from deep technical knowledge. Andrew鈥檚 particular lens is critical in helping us navigate the AI challenges and opportunities we face with respect to creative authorship. I very much look forward to his research collaborations and teaching contributions, both within the Department of Computer Science and, more broadly, across our University.鈥�

Andrew has a remarkable ability to bridge worlds that do not always naturally come together, from computer science and policy to music, the arts and the creative industries," said Professor Michelle Phillips, Director of Creative 91直播 and Professor of Music. 鈥淎t a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping how creative work is produced, shared and valued, his expertise offers an important perspective on how we can protect and support human creativity.鈥�

鈥淗is visit to 91直播 earlier this year sparked valuable conversations between researchers, students, policymakers and creative practitioners, demonstrating the potential for genuinely interdisciplinary collaboration. We are delighted to build on that momentum through this appointment and look forward to developing new research, learning and engagement opportunities together over the coming years.鈥�

Around one million people are living with dementia in the UK, yet more than a third do not have a diagnosis. Dementia risk is shaped by a mix of health, lifestyle and environmental factors, but there are positive steps people can take to reduce their risk.

The 91直播 Brain Health Centre (MBHC) has been spearheaded by Alzheimer鈥檚 Society in partnership with 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust, Greater 91直播 Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, The Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre at The University of Manchester and supported by NHS Greater 91直播.

MBHC is a unique joined-up, single service bringing together psychiatrists, vascular specialists, clinical academics, and a multidisciplinary team to identify and support people at the earliest stages of memory loss. People will benefit from advanced diagnostic techniques such as MRI scans, lumbar punctures, heart health checks, and behavioural assessments, delivering an earlier and accurate diagnosis. This approach will also help identify underlying risk factors and inform the most effective treatment and support plan for individuals.

People who meet the requirements for the MBHC will be identified through existing memory assessment services and referred directly. Those who take part in the two-year pilot in central 91直播 will also be given the chance, if they are eligible, to take part in research and clinical trials.

Alzheimer鈥檚 Society Brain Health Advisers will work alongside NHS clinicians to offer personalised support, guidance and information to people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early stage of memory and thinking changes, or dementia, as well as to anyone looking to improve their brain health through achievable lifestyle and health changes.

Michelle Dyson CB, Alzheimer鈥檚 Society Chief Executive Officer, said: 鈥淒ementia is the UK鈥檚 biggest killer, but it is not an inevitable part of ageing. Nearly half (45%) of dementia cases worldwide could be prevented or delayed by addressing health and lifestyle factors, throughout our lives, like high blood pressure.

鈥淚f we can identify people early enough, we can significantly improve their brain health and help put the brakes on dementia. The 91直播 Brain Health Centre really is changing the game, and we are proud to be a partner. This model could be replicated in other regions, transforming the future for thousands of people at risk of dementia or in the early stages of memory loss.鈥�

Professor Adam Greenstein, Consultant Geriatrician at 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Scientist at University of Manchester and Alzheimer鈥檚 Society Ambassador, said: 鈥淭he 91直播 Brain Health Centre is a game-changing approach which brings together partners who believe that greater collaboration can help diagnose more people at an earlier stage and improve health outcomes. We are combining clinical and research expertise to identify people earlier, address risk factors such as high blood pressure, and support patients to live better for longer.

This is an innovative step towards a proactive approach to brain health, and we are creating a model which we believe could be adopted more widely. Through this pilot, we will be generating the evidence to support future service collaboration and development by clinical, research and academic teams across the country.鈥�

Dr Ross Dunne, Consultant Later Life Psychiatrist and Dementia Research Lead at Greater 91直播 Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: 鈥淭he 91直播 Brain Health Centre is crucial to advancing our understanding and treatment of the diseases that cause dementia. Right now, the system is not set up for people when memory and thinking problems first appear. That is exactly when early diagnosis and treatment could have the greatest impact.

鈥淲e want the UK to be the best place in the world to get an early and accurate diagnosis. We can be a world leader in the research that will change the future of dementia. Together with our partners in Greater 91直播 and Alzheimer's Society, our aim is to develop a model for brain health clinics nationwide.鈥�

The 91直播 Brain Health Centre鈥檚 pilot clinic is hosted at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Facility (CRF): 91直播 at 91直播 Royal Infirmary.

• The 91直播 Brain Health Centre reflects The University of Manchester's commitment through its Challenge Accepted campaign to bring together research, healthcare and communities to address some of society's most pressing challenges, including improving health outcomes and healthy ageing.
• If you鈥檙e worried about yourself, or someone close to you, then Alzheimer鈥檚 Society鈥檚 symptom checklist can help you start a conversation with a GP. Visit alzheimers.org.uk/checklist or call their Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456.

Women with a higher Body Mass Index in early adulthood may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause because of lasting changes in the structure of their breast tissue, according to researchers at The University of Manchester and 91直播 University NHS Foundation Trust.

An analysis of data from more than 33,000 women found that breast density could partially explain the link between a higher body weight at age 20 and a lower chance of post-menopausal breast cancer.

The findings help explain a long-standing puzzle in breast cancer research: being overweight in middle age is known to increase breast cancer risk, while a higher body weight in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood appears to have the opposite long-term effect.

The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer today (17/09/26) and is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): 91直播.

The researchers followed 33,816 women taking part in the UK Predicting Risk of Cancer at Screening () programme for more than a decade and recorded 1,261 cases of post-menopausal breast cancer.

They examined women's self-reported body mass index (BMI) at age 20 and compared it with measurements of breast density taken during routine mammograms.

Breast density refers to the amount of fibrous and glandular tissue in the breast compared to fatty tissue; women with denser breasts are known to face a higher risk of breast cancer.

The team found that the women who had a higher BMI at age 20 generally had lower percentage breast density later in life and were also less likely to develop post-menopausal breast cancer.

For every five-point increase in BMI at age 20, the risk of developing post-menopausal breast cancer fell by around 15 per cent. Further analysis suggested that lower breast density may account for almost 60 per cent of this effect.

The researchers believe the timing of body weight gains may be crucial because women鈥檚 breasts are still developing during adolescence and early adulthood, potentially leading to long-term changes in tissue structure.

The study also found that different measures of breast density may reflect different biological pathways linked to breast cancer risk.

One measure, which estimates the percentage of dense tissue within the breast, appeared to capture some of the lasting effects associated with higher body weight in early adulthood. Another measure based on the total volume of glandular tissue appeared to be more strongly influenced by body weight later in life.

First author Dr Benoit Jauniaux, a Surgical Trainee in the North-West Deanery said: "Researchers in previous studies have observed that women with a higher BMI in childhood or their early adulthood appear to have a lower risk of breast cancer after the menopause, but we have not fully understood why.

鈥淭his study suggests that downstream changes to breast density may explain a large part of this effect.鈥�

Senior author Professor Andrew Renehan, Professor of Cancer Studies and Surgery at The University of Manchester and Programme Co-Lead in the Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Theme at the NIHR BRC: 91直播, added: 鈥淭hese findings do not suggest that gaining weight is protective. What they offer is further insight into how breast tissue and consequent breast cancer risk may be shaped across a woman's lifetime 鈥� and we want to understand these mechanisms further.

鈥淢aintaining a healthy weight remains important, because excess weight in later adulthood is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer and many other serious diseases.

鈥淏ut this study adds to growing evidence that exposures during early life can have lasting effects on health decades later.鈥�

• The paper Early-adulthood body mass index, mammographic density and post-menopausal breast cancer risk: a mediation analysis is published in the British Journal of Cancer and is available here. DOI

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, researchers, involving scientists from The University of Manchester and The Valongo Observatory, studied Sakurai's Object, a rare 鈥榖orn-again鈥� star that unexpectedly burst back to life in 1996 after reaching the final stages of its evolution.

Their findings, published today in , show that the star has entered a new phase of its evolution, developing the powerful stellar wind characteristic of Wolf-Rayet stars.

The research provides new insight into the final stages of stellar evolution and helps astronomers test theories that would otherwise take thousands or millions of years to verify.

Professor Albert Zijlstra from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester, said: "Most stars evolve so slowly that major changes take place over timescales far longer than a human lifetime. As a result, we usually have to piece together snapshots of stellar evolution by comparing different stars at different stages of their lives.

"Sakurai's Object offers something far rarer. It is one of the very few stars known to have changed dramatically within just a few decades, giving us the opportunity to watch stellar evolution unfold in real time.

鈥淲ith our observations, we can test theories of how stars evolve and gain new insights into one of the shortest and least understood phases in the life of a dying star."

How a dead star burst back to life

The scientists believe the star was similar to our Sun, but had already ended nuclear burning and begun its journey towards becoming a white dwarf - the hot, dense core left behind after an ordinary star dies. It underwent a rare event known as a "very late thermal pulse", when a layer of helium deep inside the dead star suddenly reignites.

The event caused the star to rapidly expand, cool and eject large amounts of material into space, temporarily returning to an earlier stage of its life, leading astronomers to describe it as a "born-again" star.

Only two stars have ever been directly observed undergoing this type of dramatic rebirth: Sakurai's Object and V605 Aquilae.

Following its outburst, Sakurai's Object became hidden behind thick clouds of gas and dust released during the eruption, making it difficult to study directly.

To investigate its current state, the team analysed light collected by the Very Large Telescope and compared it with sophisticated computer models that simulate the atmospheres and powerful winds of Wolf-Rayet stars.

The observations revealed distinctive signatures of carbon and helium, allowing the researchers to find its temperature, chemical composition and the characteristics of its stellar wind.

Their analysis suggests the star's surface temperature is currently between around 27,000 and 36,000 degrees Kelvin, showing that it is reheating following its dramatic eruption nearly three decades ago.

A rare glimpse of stellar evolution in action

Prof Zijlstra added: "One of the key questions is how quickly Sakurai's Object should recover after its dramatic eruption.

"Our measurements show that the star is reheating more gradually than some earlier models predicted. That gives us an important way of testing which theories best describe what happens when a dying star briefly springs back to life.

"As we continue to monitor the star over the coming years, we expect to learn much more about this remarkable phase of stellar evolution."

The findings also suggest that Sakurai's Object is at an earlier stage of its evolution than V605 Aquilae, which experienced a similar event around 80 years ago.

The team will continue observing Sakurai's Object as it continues reheating and resumes its journey towards becoming a white dwarf, learning more about one of the most rapid and unusual phases of stellar evolution ever observed.

The University of Manchester has been recognised for the strength and breadth of its subject-level performance in the 2026 ShanghaiRanking鈥檚 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

The results reflect the depth of Manchester鈥檚 impact across a wide range of disciplines. Ten subjects are ranked among the top 50 worldwide, including five in the global top 25 across each of the University鈥檚 faculties. Geography remains in the world top 10, while Dentistry and Oral Sciences is ranked 13th, Physics 16th, Metallurgical Engineering 18th and Textile Science and Engineering 25th.

Completing the University鈥檚 global top 50 subjects are Biotechnology, ranked 29th, Mechanical Engineering 40th, Sociology 46th, Library and Information Science 48th and Political Sciences 50th.

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said: 鈥淭hese results are a welcome recognition of the quality and reach of academic work taking place across The University of Manchester, with top 25 subjects spanning all three faculties.

鈥淩ankings don鈥檛 measure everything we value, but are useful tools for reflecting on where progress is being made and where further work is needed, particularly in an increasingly competitive global higher education environment. The real value lies in using that insight to drive meaningful improvements in research, teaching and innovation, helping us deliver on our ambitious strategy - 91直播 2035鈥�

Several subjects have climbed the table in this year鈥檚 rankings. Sociology returned to the global top 50, rising from the 101鈥�150 band to 46th. Textile Science and Engineering moved from 30th to 25th, while Biotechnology rose from 33rd to 29th. Mechanical Engineering improved from 43rd to 40th.

Other areas also recorded progress. Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Psychology all saw substantial gains in the rankings, while Civil Engineering and Communication also improved.

The longer-term picture shows sustained momentum in several disciplines. Biotechnology has moved from the 151鈥�200 band in 2023 to 36th in 2024, 33rd in 2025 and 29th this year. Mechanical Engineering has progressed from 76鈥�100 in 2023 to 40th in 2026. Mathematics has improved in each ranking since 2023, moving from 151鈥�200 to 51鈥�75.

The University is now ranked in 49 subject areas, compared with 48 in 2025 and 43 in 2023. The results span disciplines across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences and Social Sciences, reflecting the breadth of activity taking place across 91直播.

ShanghaiRanking鈥檚 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects assesses universities across 57 subjects using nine objective indicators covering faculty, research output, research quality, impact and international collaboration.

Each year, the ranking includes subjects from approximately 2,000 universities across some 100 countries and regions.

For more information, visit the website.

The results demonstrate renewed momentum in the commercialisation of research originating from The University of Manchester (UoM), as the institution puts increasing focus on innovation as part of its ambitious 2035 Strategy.

As the University's dedicated technology transfer office, the Innovation Factory works with researchers to develop early-stage ideas, helping identify commercial potential, protect intellectual property and determine the best route to market. Its support continues through licensing and spinout creation, investment readiness and the longer-term development of companies within its portfolio.

The 11 new spinouts reflect the breadth of research and innovation taking place across the University:

• Grid Stability Ltd, building AI-driven stability assessment tools for modern power systems, reducing cost and carbon while improving stability.
• Lut猫o Medical Ltd, developing new clinical eczema solutions based on microbiome science.
• SpinOr Ltd, pioneering a compact and modular superconducting quantum computer design.
• Imprinted Diagnostics Ltd, developing rapid diagnostics, with its first product focused on heart attack triage.
• ColoriQuo Ltd, developing sustainable structural colour technologies inspired by nature.
• FLAG-Me SAFE Ltd, creating digital safeguarding tools to help pharmacies better support people with sight and hearing impairments.
• Pacentrica Ltd, creating digital technologies for pain assessment and long-term pain management.
• Precica Ltd, developing technology to significantly reduce data storage requirements while keeping information searchable and accessible.
• InformiX Pharma Ltd, using advanced three-dimensional imaging to improve the development and manufacture of medicines.
• Zenithym Ltd, commercialising semiconducting polymer nanoparticles for a range of industrial and medical applications.
• C3 Biotechnologies Ltd, converting industrial waste streams into sustainable chemicals and high-value products.

Dr Catherine Headley, CEO of the University of Manchester Innovation Factory, said:

鈥淭his has been an incredible year for the Innovation Factory and the results reflect the breadth and quality of innovation emerging from across the University, the strength of our spinout portfolio, and the quality of service that we provide. We are extremely proud of the progress that we have made this year as we build the foundations to play a key role in the University鈥檚 innovation plans.鈥�

Investment and the next generation of opportunities

Companies across the Innovation Factory portfolio secured over 拢56 million in external investment during 2025/26, providing crucial capital needed to develop technologies, attract talent, establish partnerships and move towards commercial scale.

Alongside supporting its established spinout portfolio, the Innovation Factory continues to develop the pipeline of opportunities that could become the University鈥檚 future spinouts and licenses.

During 2025/26, the team supported over 300 researchers from across the University鈥檚 schools and faculties at the early stages of commercialisation, helping them explore opportunities to create positive impact, develop intellectual property strategies and identify the most appropriate commercial outcomes for their research. This represents the highest level of researcher engagement with the Innovation Factory in five years, reflecting significant growth in the number of individuals accessing commercialisation support.

Professor John Holden, Vice President for Innovation and Civic Engagement said:

鈥淐ommercialisation is an important part of translating research into wider economic and societal benefit and positive impact. These results show the value of the rich innovation ecosystem that we are establishing in 91直播 and the expertise within the Innovation Factory allows us to support our researchers from the earliest stages.鈥�

A growing innovation ecosystem

The Innovation Factory鈥檚 work is increasingly enhanced by a wider innovation ecosystem across the University and Greater 91直播.

In addition to the support from the Innovation Factory, staff, students and alumni can benefit from varied UoM specialist services and programmes including Unit M, Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange and the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, alongside initiatives such as Ideas with Impact, developed by the University鈥檚 Division of Development and Alumni Relations.

To find out more about the Innovation Factory, visit

Students will have the chance to take part in exchanges and gain a broader international perspective, while academic colleagues will be able to develop shared research interests and learn from each other鈥檚 approaches.

The two universities will collaborate through workshops and conferences, alongside sharing publications, teaching practice and course design.

ASU is consistently ranked as the most innovative university in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, taking the accolade for the 11^th successive year in 2025.

Professor Angelia Wilson, Associate Vice President International at The University of Manchester said: 鈥淲e are strengthening the ties between these two powerhouses of innovation through this partnership, which will create incredible opportunities for colleagues and students on both sides of the Atlantic. The MoU sets a framework to build on our respective strengths and collaborate effectively over the years to come.鈥�

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice President and Dean for the Faculty of Humanities at The University of Manchester added: 鈥淲e are delighted to develop further opportunities to collaborate between the two institutions and build on our mutual research interests in innovation and policy across Humanities.鈥�

Shannon Portillo, director of the School of Public Affairs and Coor Presidential Chair at Arizona State University said: 鈥淭his MoU builds on the strong collaborations between faculty and research centers at 91直播鈥檚 Faculty of Humanities and ASU鈥檚 School of Public Affairs. We look forward to more connections between our faculty and students.鈥� The school is based in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University.

The University of Manchester is globally recognised for its research, teaching and commitment to social responsibility. It is an international university, with more than 46,000 students, 12,800 colleagues and 585,000 alumni from 190 countries.

Sign up for our e-news to hear first-hand about our international partnerships and activities across the globe.

The challenge, now in its third year, saw teams of Year 10 and 11 pupils spend four weeks developing metal-detecting robotic systems before returning to the University's Nancy Rothwell Building for a series of live detection challenges.

The competition is inspired by research carried out by the University's electromagnetic sensing team and gives young people hands-on experience of electronics engineering while highlighting the real-world challenge of detecting buried landmines and other hidden objects underground. It also aims to inspire more young people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Teams started with an introductory workshop in June, where they received their robot kits and took part in practical engineering sessions, careers talks and got the chance to meet and ask questions to professionals from across the electrical engineering sector. They were then paired with University of Manchester undergraduate mentors, who visited their schools to help guide teams through the design and build process.

The competition culminated in a final event on 14 July, with pupils putting their creations to the test in a series of practical arena challenges designed to assess their detection and engineering skills.

Co-op Academy Swinton took first place overall. St Ambrose Barlow RC High School were named runners-up and Chorlton High School South received the award for 鈥楤est Presentation鈥�, all receiving specially engraved trophies.

Competition led, Dr Michael O鈥橳oole said: 鈥�91直播 Minesweeper challenge gives pupils the chance to take on a genuine engineering challenge and build something that works in the real world.

鈥淥ver the course of four weeks, they learn about electronics, problem-solving, teamwork and design, while working alongside current engineering students who help them develop their ideas and gain confidence that university and a career in STEM could be within their reach."

InstMC Vice-President Dave Green said: 鈥淚t's incredibly rewarding to see the creativity, determination and technical skills that the teams develop, and we hope the experience encourages some of them to consider studying engineering or another STEM subject in the future.鈥�

The initiative was originally established with support from a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious award. For the first time this year, it was supported by leading local engineering businesses through the sponsorship of the Institute of Measurement Control (Central Northwest), Endress+Hauser, Technical Partners, and Tetra Tech Consulting, whose representatives joined the final event and helped judge the competition.

will receive 拢95 million for research into advanced materials to help deliver the National Materials Strategy, launched in February 2026.

The Royce will continue its world-leading work to keep the UK at the forefront of advanced materials research and turn scientific discoveries into commercial products. The institute's work helps to create solutions to some of the key issues facing our society, including developing lighter, more efficient battery technology or using AI to design a new alloy that could replace scarce rare-earth materials used in electrical equipment. It works closely with businesses to commercialise new tech quickly and fuel growth in the UK.

The Rosalind Franklin Institute, a research centre dedicated to developing new technologies to address health challenges, will also receive a 拢67.7 million investment to build on its pioneering work in next-generation imaging, engineering, biology and diagnostics.

Science Minister Chris McDonald said: 鈥淲e have world leading science research in the UK that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. It is the foundation of our mission to reindustrialise the country, creating good, well paid jobs by developing new technologies and growing British companies.

鈥淭he Rosalind Franklin Institute and the Henry Royce Institute are world leading in their fields. Combining biological knowledge, advanced physics and materials development to understand how the cells in our bodies function, and can be repaired and treated with precision medicines.

"The research gives our country a competitive edge, so long as we commercialise it in industry. Developing new medical technologies and treatments and bringing them to market is good for jobs and good for health, making a real impact on people's lives."

Turning research into reality

Executive Director for the Strategy Directorate at the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (UKRI), Dr Kedar Pandya, said: 鈥淭he Rosalind Franklin Institute and Henry Royce Institute have a proven track record of turning public investment into research that advances knowledge, improves lives and drives growth.

鈥淭his continued funding from UKRI builds on that success. It will give researchers the tools and resources to answer some of the biggest questions in the health and advanced materials industries, keeping the UK at the forefront of global science and engineering.鈥�

These two institutes are turning brilliant science into real-world impact, and contributing to the UK鈥檚 leadership in two vital sectors 鈥� life sciences and the advanced materials industry, both of which are among the eight high growth sectors targeted for support in the government鈥檚 Industrial Strategy.

Their world-leading facilities, anchored at Harwell in Didcot for the Franklin and 91直播 for the Royce, will provide new equipment and infrastructure for scientists, industry partners and as well as working closely with businesses across the country.

Already, Royce鈥檚 battery development facility has supported Molyon, a University of Cambridge spin-out, in creating a new generation of lithium-sulphur batteries that are lighter, more sustainable and can store twice as much energy as current models. The breakthrough has helped Molyon raise $4.6 million in seed funding to bring the technology to market.

This is just one example of how these institutes support connections between cutting edge research and British businesses, helping to make sure that the UK鈥檚 scientific excellence translates into jobs, new investment and economic growth in every part of the country, as set out in the government's 10-year Industrial Strategy. This funding is delivered through UK Research and Innovation, with the intention to deliver the greatest possible impact.

Professor Paul Monks, Chair, Henry Royce Institute said: 鈥淭he achievements of the Henry Royce Institute demonstrate what can be accomplished when the UK brings together outstanding people, facilities and institutions around a shared national purpose, but ultimately the measure of our success is in the outcomes that this enables.

鈥淭his renewed investment is both a recognition of what the Royce Partnership has achieved and a huge vote of confidence in its future. Advanced materials underpin almost every technology that will shape a more sustainable and prosperous economy, and our next phase will be increasingly focused on translating our national capability into tangible outcomes for the economy, society and the environment.

鈥淏y deepening our national and international impact and forging stronger connections between research and industry, we want to ensure that great materials science leads to real-world innovation, while keeping the UK at the forefront of advanced materials.鈥�

Professor Sarah Sharples, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Member of the Royce Governing Board, said: "We are living through a period of profound technological and societal change, and meeting the challenges and opportunities that brings depends on strong partnerships between universities, industry and government.

"Royce demonstrates the power of that approach. By bringing together outstanding expertise, facilities and industrial partners from across the UK, it has built a world-leading advanced materials innovation ecosystem that translates extraordinary research into the technologies and businesses that will shape our future.

"As the lead partner and home of the Henry Royce Institute, The University of Manchester is proud to play a convening role at the heart of this national partnership and all it has achieved. This renewed investment will strengthen the UK's position as a global leader in advanced materials and help ensure that discoveries made in our laboratories continue to deliver benefits for the economy, society and the environment."

A new Wellcome Trust clinical Doctoral Training Programme partnership between The University of Manchester, City St George鈥檚, The University of Exeter and Imperial College London, is enabling students to carry out cutting-edge research into fungal infections and address underrepresented populations and diseases. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation established in 1936 with an aim of working towards a healthier future for everyone. Through a 拢155 million investment into 14 new doctoral training programmes across the UK, Wellcome is supporting the next generation of healthcare professional researchers.

Tackling the global threat of fungal disease

The Mycology Doctoral Training Programme (Myco-DTP) will develop the next generation of clinical academic leaders tackling fungal diseases, one of the world's most significant but often overlooked infectious disease challenges.

Fungi such as Candida, Aspergillus and Cryptococcus cause more than six million invasive infections and over three million deaths globally each year, particularly affecting people with weakened immune systems. Treatment options remain limited and antifungal resistance is an increasing concern.

Although the UK is internationally recognised for excellence in medical mycology research, there is a shortage of clinically trained researchers able to translate laboratory discoveries into improvements in patient care. Myco-DTP has been designed to address this gap by supporting doctors, pharmacists and healthcare scientists to become future leaders in fungal disease research. Led by Professor Tihana Bicanic at City St George's, alongside Professor Adilia Warris at the University of Exeter, Professor Mike Bromley at the University of Manchester and Professor Darius Armstrong-James at Imperial College London, the programme will train 15 healthcare professionals through a multidisciplinary curriculum spanning five translational research themes of mechanisms of disease, diagnosis, immunology, therapeutics and antifungal resistance. PhD fellows will benefit from training, mentoring

and networking opportunities within an internationally recognised UK medical mycology community.

The programme brings together leading experts in fungal disease research and is linked to international networks focused on clinical trials, policy and advocacy, helping ensure discoveries made through the programme can deliver impact for patients in the UK and around the world.

Professor Bromley said: "Fungal infections are a growing global health threat, but clinical research capacity has simply not kept pace. The MYCO-DTP will be transformational, training a new generation of clinical researchers capable of translating world-leading fungal science into benefits for patients. Building on Wellcome鈥檚 sustained investment in medical mycology, and the combined expertise at the University of Manchester and National Aspergillosis Centre, this programme will help create the clinical research leaders our field urgently needs.鈥�

Fatty liver disease, they find, has been overlooked in current approaches to assessing cardiometabolic health, despite growing evidence that it can play a central role in facilitating damage across different organs.

The condition which affects up to one in three adults worldwide and known technically as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), is already one of the world's fastest-growing health problems and is expected to affect more than half of adults globally by 2040.

Many scientists argue that the liver should be recognised alongside the heart, kidneys and metabolic system in a new framework they call cardiovascular-renal-hepatic-metabolic (CRHM) syndrome.

The review, published in Current opinion in nephrology and hypertension, highlights evidence showing that people with fatty liver disease face increased risks of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and early death, particularly when liver scarring, known as fibrosis, develops.

The studies they assessed, which involved millions of patients, found that fatty liver disease can predict heart and kidney complications independently of traditional risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

And having both liver and kidney disease appears to create a particularly dangerous combination.

A fatty liver releases substances into the bloodstream that promote inflammation, damage blood vessels, interfere with how the body uses energy.

That can influence the health of other organs through harmful fat deposits, chronic inflammation, hormonal signalling and changes in the gut microbiome amongst other things.

The review also points to a wave of new treatments that could transform care for patients affected by the interconnected conditions.

Drugs originally developed for obesity and type 2 diabetes are now showing benefits across the liver, heart and kidneys simultaneously.

Semaglutide, best known as a weight-loss treatment, has become the first medicine to demonstrate benefits, while newer drugs including tirzepatide and retatrutide are producing promising results in clinical trials.

The researchers say routine liver screening should become part of kidney and cardiovascular assessments, particularly in patients with obesity, diabetes or other metabolic risk factors.

They also call for major clinical trials and healthcare services to move beyond treating diseases organ by organ and instead adopt integrated approaches reflecting how these conditions interact in the real world.

Dr Will Marshall clinical research fellow at The University of Manchester and senior author of the study, said: "For many years we have viewed heart disease, kidney disease and liver disease as separate conditions managed by different specialists.

鈥淭he evidence now shows that these organs are deeply interconnected through shared biological pathways driven by obesity, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation.鈥�

Dr Marshall, who is also based at Salford Royal added: 鈥淔atty liver disease is not simply a consequence of metabolic ill health, it is an active contributor to it.

鈥淩ecognising the liver as a core component of cardiometabolic disease could help clinicians identify high-risk patients earlier, improve treatment decisions and ultimately prevent thousands of serious complications and premature deaths."

路 This paper is a peer reviewed narrative review which cites 55 references in its bibliography, covering epidemiological studies, clinical trials, meta-analyses, guidelines, reviews, and expert commentaries.

• The study Integrating the liver into the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome: pathophysiology and therapeutic implications is published in journal DOI 10.1097/MNH.0000000000001225

A 鈥減eculiar鈥� new species of Jurassic squid-like animal has been unearthed in Wyoming, USA, following the discovery of two exceptionally rare fossils dating back around 160 million years.

The newly named species, Wyoteuthis linsterorum, has been identified as a type of ancient cephalopod, called a belemnite, cousins of modern squid and octopus. They say unusually thick, barrel-shaped skeleton makes it the "chunkiest鈥� or 鈥渇attest" belemnite ever discovered.

An international team of researchers from the USA, UK and New Zealand, including Dr Dean Lomax, Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, describe the discovery in the journal today.

Belemnites are among the most common fossils found worldwide and are recognised by their bullet-shaped remains, known as a rostrum or guard. Millions have been discovered in Wyoming's Sundance Formation, an ancient inland sea that once covered the western USA.

Co-author and Wyoming palaeontologist, Jessica Lippincott, said in Wyoming, they are nicknamed 鈥渟quid butts鈥�.

The chunkiest belemnite ever discovered

Most Wyoming belemnites are bullet-shaped measuring around 5 to 10 centimetres long and only 1 to 2 centimetres wide. By contrast, the newly discovered species had an unusually broad, barrel-shaped rostrum around 10 centimetres long but up to six centimetres wide, making it the thickest belemnite ever recorded.

Researchers estimate the living animal would have reached around 60 centimetres in total length including its arms.

The work was instigated by Wyoming palaeontologist and co-author Bill Wahl, who has spent much of his career searching for fossils in Wyoming and said this belemnite 鈥渟tuck out like a sore thumb鈥�. He brought together an international team of researchers to investigate the remarkable specimens, including belemnite expert Alexey Ippolitov, now at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Using computed tomography (CT) scanning, the team were able to examine the fossils without damaging them, revealing internal features that confirmed the animal belonged to an ancient family of belemnites previously thought to have disappeared millions of years earlier.

PhD student, Ippolitov said he was "deeply surprised" to discover a fossil from such a well-studied group that differed so radically from anything previously known. After more than 200 years of palaeontological research on belemnites, he said, discoveries like this are exceptionally rare.

Ippolitov explains: 鈥淎 possible explanation is that their relatively large size gave them an advantage when hunting co-occurring smaller belemnites of the genus Pachyteuthis. Modern squid, after all, are hardly picky when it comes to prey: they readily hunt not only other species of cephalopods, but sometimes even their own kind.鈥�

30 years in the making

The discovery was almost 30 years in the making. The first specimen was unearthed in the late 1990s by Dr Burkhard Pohl, founder of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, after he spotted a belemnite much bigger than any he had seen before. The fossil sat unstudied in the museum's collection draw for many years until a second specimen was discovered by fossil collector Cliff Linster near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 2019. Together, the two fossils provided the evidence needed to identify and formally describe the new species.

Honouring a fossil collector's legacy

The name Wyoteuthis translates to 鈥渁 squid from Wyoming鈥�, while the species name, linsterorum, honours Cliff Linster and his family. Cliff discovered one of only two known specimens of the new species and donated it for scientific study.

Co-author and Wyoming palaeontologist, Jessica Lippincott, said: 鈥淎fter spending years fossil hunting in Wyoming and collecting countless fossils of the common Pachyteuthis belemnites here in Wyoming, this one is unlike anything I have ever seen! It goes to show that we are still finding new species of fossils all the time, and people who rockhound or collect invertebrate fossils can also contribute to science.鈥�

Cliff Linster passed away in June this year. He knew researchers were studying his remarkable discovery and was excited to see it formally described. The Linster family are no strangers to finding amazing fossils, perhaps most famously the dinosaur Bambiraptor.

Co-author and British palaeontologist, Dr Dean Lomax, an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, in the UK, dug up dinosaurs with Cliff and his wife, Sandy, when he was a teenager. He said: 鈥淚 met Cliff and Sandy in 2009, when I spent a week digging up a dinosaur bonebed on their property in northern Montana. I have fond memories of that dig, listening to Cliff share his passion for fossils, including this belemnite. I鈥檓 honoured to help name this fossil after Cliff. It鈥檚 bittersweet that he didn鈥檛 get to see it published, but it鈥檚 wonderful that we can immortalise him and his family name in the history of palaeontology. The find is incredibly rare, which might be due to some ecological adaptations to the environment at the time. Perhaps its rarity is a result of narrow specialization.鈥�

Dr Lomax is also the author of the recently published book, 鈥淭he Secret Lives of Dinosaurs鈥�, which highlights Wyoming fossils, and he has spent time collecting fossils and excavating plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs in Wyoming鈥檚 Sundance Formation.

Both specimens are on display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming USA.

Publication details

The new study has been published in the international journal, Papers in Palaeontology.

DOI:

The exact timeline of the recent Nepal flooding disaster is becoming clearer. At 8:37am, instruments recorded what was initially interpreted as an earthquake near 狈别辫补濒鈥檚 border with China. Seven minutes later, CCTV recorded the Gyirong Port border post being destroyed by a massive debris flow and flood.

flood authorities learned about the incident at about 9:00am and sent out an emergency SMS alert at about 9:15am. But by that time, Nepal was already deep into a major disaster.

The 38 minute gap between the tremor being detected and the emergency alert is striking. But it would be wrong to assume 狈别辫补濒鈥檚 authorities could simply have acted on the initial signal: at the time, it appeared to be a small earthquake, rather than a much rarer mountain collapse. The flood also arrived too swiftly for water-level sensors: they went almost immediately from recording normal levels to being destroyed.

The more interesting question is what a better-integrated warning system might have made possible. Could seismic readings, satellite images and other observations have been combined quickly enough to recognise what was happening and alert people further downstream?

Existing early-warning systems have often been designed around particular hazards such as regular rain-caused floods or . But this disaster was neither a Glof nor a regular flood. Instead it appears to have involved a rare, large-scale collapse of rock and ice, which turned into a devastating debris flow and flood.

As a of a strikingly similar flood in India last year argued, this type of hazard is largely absent from existing warning frameworks. As , such events are likely to happen more often.

Cascading mountain hazards that cross borders

In July 2025, a glacial lake in Tibet burst and swept down into Nepal, killing at least nine people and leaving around 20 missing in Nepal. Eleven people were also officially reported missing on the Chinese side.

After the flood, Nepal and China agreed in principle to share real-time information about floods, landslides and glacial lakes. However, despite 狈别辫补濒鈥檚 foreign minister during a visit to China in May 2026, no formal agreement has been signed.

Across the Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountain ranges, rivers, weather systems and infrastructure frequently span national boundaries. Our shows a hazard that begins in one place can have lethal consequences 鈥� and create new warning requirements 鈥� far downstream.

A warming climate is by thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost and destabilising slopes, even if climate change isn鈥檛 the sole explanation for every disaster. Meanwhile roads and hydropower projects are putting more people and infrastructure in threatened valleys.

Cooperation has to come before the disaster

Some cross-border early-warning arrangements already exist between Nepal and its neighbours, particularly for recurring floods. But sudden, cascading events such as the recent disaster pose a different challenge. A warning has value only if it travels the whole distance 鈥� from a sensor in the mountains, through scientific agencies, national and local authorities, to households in the valleys and plains below, in the minutes that matter.

Community-based flood warning already works in parts of 狈别辫补濒鈥檚 Koshi basin, where upstream gauges and trained local volunteers buy downstream villages precious time. A regional early warning system would have to link these community-level systems with national and cross-border monitoring, so that information can move from the source of a hazard to the people at risk. That means agreeing in advance what should be shared, how warnings should be passed between countries and agencies, and what action they should trigger.

That requires institutional changes and political commitment, as much as new technology. The region鈥檚 existing water treaties were written to divide flows and manage dams and barrages, not to govern cascading hazards in the high mountains. Governments could establish permanent bodies responsible for Himalayan rivers and their associated hazards. Featuring both scientists and policymakers, and linked to counterparts in neighbouring countries, these public bodies would be mandated to share data, jointly monitor glaciers, lakes and slopes, and coordinate warnings across borders.

The aim would be to make cooperation routine and sustained between disasters, rather than improvised in a crisis when events may unfold too quickly for international debate. None of this requires neighbours to resolve their wider disputes; it asks only that disaster warning be ring-fenced as shared humanitarian infrastructure that keeps working unabated.

The technologies for predicting and monitoring high-mountain hazards are improving fast. We now need more international scientific and policy cooperation, and warning systems capable of turning these observations into rapid action.

By , Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Environmental Management, ; , Lecturer in Disasters and Global Health, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, ; , Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, , and , Associate Professor, Department of Geomatics Engineering,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

University of Manchester scientists have uncovered a hidden role for immune cells in the womb, opening the door to new treatments for infertility, miscarriage and other reproductive conditions that affect millions of women worldwide.

The findings are a breakthrough in our understanding of women's reproductive biology, one of the most under-researched areas of medicine, despite infertility and pregnancy complications affecting millions of families.

The researchers hope their findings will accelerate efforts to develop targeted therapies for a range of conditions in urgent need of advancement, including recurrent miscarriage, IVF implantation failure, uterine fibrosis (scarring) and non-cancerous growths in the womb called fibroids.

Using mouse models and samples from women, specialised white blood cells called monocytes, they found, play a vital role in keeping the uterus healthy throughout the menstrual cycle.

Their findings, published in Nature Immunology today, reveal that these cells manage inflammation, repair tissue and maintain the womb lining, challenging long-held assumptions about how the uterus regulates itself.

They showed that during a healthy menstrual cycle, large numbers of monocytes move from the bloodstream into the uterus at specific times each month.

Once there, they are able to promote inflammation when needed or help repair and rebuild tissue.

Monocytes, they add, are essential for normal tissue turnover in the womb, though when missing, the uterus developed abnormal tissue structures and scarring causing problems with reproduction, with the mice having fewer pups per litter.

Using mouse models to track how immune cells in the womb develop over time, they determined that once recruited to the womb, monocytes turn into two different types of specialised immune cells (macrophages), one causing inflammation and one promoting tissue repair .

The findings were particularly striking in women with Asherman Syndrome, an often undetected condition in which scar tissue forms inside the uterus and can cause infertility, recurrent miscarriage and pregnancy complications.

The team discovered unusually high numbers of inflammatory monocytes in women affected by Asherman鈥檚 syndrome. Rather than rising and falling naturally throughout the menstrual cycle, the cells remained persistently elevated and clustered around specialised glands in the lining of the womb.

The study suggests this abnormal immune activity in mice may contribute to the development of fibrosis and scarring inside the uterus.

The work could help identify new treatment strategies, such as blocking inflammatory pathways or targeting molecules that control the movement and behaviour of monocytes, which aim to restore a healthy immune balance in the womb.

Dr , senior author of the study from The University of Manchester, said: "For many years we have known surprisingly little about the immune cells that live and work within the uterus.

鈥淥ur study shows that one type of immune cell - monocytes - are not simply bystanders but essential for maintaining a healthy womb.

鈥淲hen their behaviour becomes disrupted, normal tissue repair processes can go wrong and scarring may develop.

She added: 鈥淲e hope these findings will pave the way for new treatments that improve fertility and reproductive health for women affected by inflammatory womb conditions."

鈥淭he lack of knowledge in this area reflects the historic underfunding and low prioritisation of women鈥檚 health.

鈥淥ne critical consequence of this is the dramatic decline in global fertility rates, set to transform global population patterns.鈥�

• The DOI for the paper is 10.1038/s41590-026-02651-y and is available

The pupils most at risk

• Pupils receiving SEN support were more than twice as likely to be suspended as pupils without SEN, while those with an EHCP also had more than twice the odds of suspension.
• Pupils eligible for free school meals were nearly two and a half times more likely to be suspended than those who were not eligible.
• Pupils reporting higher levels of peer pressure and experiences of bullying victimisation were more likely to be suspended.
• Pupils who reported they had used any substance in the past 30 days were nearly three times more likely to be suspended than those reporting no recent substance use, in part because substance use is itself direct grounds for suspension under DfE guidance.

What could help prevent suspensions?

• School belonging, satisfaction with academic attainment and positive relationships with school staff were all associated with lower odds of suspension.
• Stronger emotion regulation was also associated with lower suspension risk.
• Suspensions are associated with multiple overlapping individual and school-level factors, highlighting the need for preventative approaches that address underlying needs rather than relying solely on disciplinary measures.

The research used data from the #BeeWell programme, a youth wellbeing measurement programme led by The University of Manchester in collaboration with Anna Freud, a children鈥檚 mental health charity, and the Gregson Family Foundation.

The #BeeWell survey captures young people's wellbeing alongside factors that can influence it, including school experiences, health behaviours, peer and family relationships and neighbourhood characteristics. Survey responses can be linked with administrative data held by participating local authorities, allowing researchers to examine young people's experiences alongside information about suspension and exclusion.

The researchers analysed data from 19,064 pupils in Years 8 and 10 across 69 mainstream secondary schools in Hampshire and Southampton during the 2023/24 academic year. Around six per cent of pupils in the study had been suspended at least once during the academic year.

Looking beyond suspension and moving towards engagement

鈥淥ur findings show that suspension is not simply about what happens in an individual classroom or about a young person's behaviour in isolation,鈥� said lead author Dr Stephanie Cahill. 鈥淧upils' experiences of disadvantage, their relationships with peers and staff, their sense of belonging and their additional educational needs all form part of a much more complex picture.

The researchers say the findings highlight the importance of early intervention and preventative support, particularly for pupils experiencing disadvantage or additional educational needs.

Supportive relationships between pupils and school staff, as well as a strong sense of belonging, may play an important role in helping young people remain engaged with education.

The study also highlights the importance of understanding the different pathways that can lead to suspension鈥� a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work for all pupils.

The researchers caution that the study identifies associations rather than causal relationships. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these patterns and how schools can most effectively intervene to prevent suspensions.

鈥淲e recognise that the current climate within education has meant that many teachers are working under very challenging conditions and that often 鈥榖lanket鈥� approaches are taken due to limited capacity,鈥� said Professor Neil Humphrey. 鈥淚n order to ensure more work can be done to understand individual pathways and prevent suspensions, there needs to be increased support for schools from the government.鈥�

You can find helpful resources from #BeeWell on school belonging

Publication details

The study was published in the British Educational Research Journal.

DOI:

A by University of Manchester scientists says sophisticated lab-grown tumours could help fast-track the search for new cancer treatments while reducing reliance on animal testing.

Publishing in the British Journal of Cancer, the researchers assessed biomaterial-based cancer models using advanced materials known as hydrogels.

The models recreate key features of tumours in the lab, offering a potentially quicker way to study how cancers grow and spread.

The technology could also help scientists identify promising drugs more quickly by providing a realistic testing environment before treatments reach clinical trials.

However, the researchers stress that animal studies will remain an important part of cancer research for the foreseeable future, often providing valuable evidence about disease and drug safety.

And unlike animal research, the new technology cannot yet replicate the whole-body complexity needed to assess all aspects of drug efficacy and safety.

Hydrogels, which are derived from synthetic, plant, human or animal cells, act like a scaffold and closely mimic the environment surrounding cancer cells inside the human body.

The technology allows scientists to add cancer cells and other cell types to three-dimensional structures, creating miniature tumour ecosystems that reflect what happens in patients better than conventional two-dimensional models.

The three-dimensional tumour models are designed to mimic real cancers more closely, recreating key features such as cell interactions and drug resistance.

Two-dimensional cell cultures often fail to replicate the complexity of tumours, leading to promising drugs appearing effective in the laboratory only to disappoint in later testing.

Eve Tipple, a PhD researcher from The University of Manchester and lead author of the review, said: 鈥淭hough animal research will remain for the foreseeable future, continued advances in biomaterials could pave the way for a new generation of cancer models that are relevant to human disease.

鈥淭his technology might help researchers make better decisions earlier in the drug development process and accelerate the arrival of life-saving treatments for cancer patients worldwide.

鈥淭he technology could cut the number of animals used in research, save millions of pounds, and speed up the search for life-saving treatments.鈥�

Cancer remains one of the world's biggest killers despite huge advances in treatment, and one major reason is that most new drugs never make it to patients.

For decades, researchers have relied on simple 2D cell cultures grown on flat plastic surfaces.

But these models fail to capture the complexity of real tumours, which contain intricate networks of cells, tissues and chemical signals.

As a result, drugs can appear highly effective in the lab only to disappoint in later testing.

She added: 鈥淐ancer is far more than a collection of diseased cells because the environment surrounding a tumour strongly influences how it grows, spreads and responds to treatment.

鈥淏iomaterial-based models allow us to recreate many of these complex conditions in the laboratory with a level of control that was previously impossible.

鈥淭his gives researchers a powerful platform to study cancer biology, improve drug testing and ultimately help bring effective treatments closer to patients.鈥�

• The paper Using biomaterial-based 3D in vitro cancer models to solve current clinical problems DOI .
• Image shows a 3D model

There is no credible scenario in which expansion at Heathrow can go ahead without blowing a hole in the UK鈥檚 legally binding climate targets, new modelling published by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at The University of Manchester reveals today.

The report, commissioned by the environmental justice organisation Friends of the Earth, provides the first detailed analysis of whether Heathrow expansion is compatible with the UK鈥檚 legal carbon budgets.

Recent approvals of airport expansion at Gatwick, Stansted Luton and many other locations mean that UK aviation is already projected to exceed its share of the Seventh Carbon Budget (2038-42) by between 21 and 50%, depending on how much sustainable aviation fuel materialises. That is before any Heathrow expansion takes place.

The analysis concludes that the two technologies relied upon to enable passenger growth or airport expansion to fit within carbon budgets 鈥� Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) 鈥� are not even close to being on track for sufficiently capacity within the required timeframe.

The report concludes that Heathrow expansion cannot credibly meet the UK鈥檚 climate targets thanks to three key findings:

• Aviation emissions: The UK鈥檚 aviation sector will already exceed its share of the Seventh Carbon Budget by around 40%, even before Heathrow expansion is considered. The research highlights how even the government鈥檚 own modelling reaches a similar conclusion.

• Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF): Based on existing evidence SAF would be unable to close the emissions gap. Even optimistic deployment of this technology would leave aviation above its carbon budget share. Previous studies have shown that current SAF production methods face major structural constraints or compete with agriculture for land and water, just as farmers have experienced what could be the worst harvest on record and are already warning about the impact of the climate crisis on food production.

• Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs): GGR describes methods that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it long-term, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. The report highlights how global GGR deployment is significantly off track and that no engineered removal plants are operating yet in the UK. Despite this, aviation emissions modelling heavily relies upon future potential GGR to offset additional emissions. Even before any airport expansion is taken into account aviation is the biggest projected user of GGR capacity. On top of this, these scenarios all depend on SAF pulling its weight; if SAF fails to deliver, even more GGR will have to be deployed. The report concludes that the building capacity for more aviation demand before large scale GGR facilities are operational is inconsistent with taking climate targets seriously.

• Non-CO鈧� impacts are not accounted for: Aviation's full warming effects are not captured within carbon budgets. Non-CO鈧俥 impacts including from nitrogen oxides and contrails, account for around two-thirds of aviation's climate warming and should be incorporated into future climate targets.

What do the researchers say?

The lead researchers, , and recommend decisionmakers reject any proposed expansion at Heathrow Airport.

Dr Lois Pennington, Research Fellow at the Tyndall Centre said:

鈥淓very aviation scenario the UK Government has published overshoots the carbon budget Parliament has legislated, before a third runway at Heathrow is even taken into account.

鈥淥ur analysis shows that aviation cannot continue to grow if the sector is to make a proportionate contribution to meeting the UK鈥檚 carbon budgets. Sustainable aviation fuels and carbon removals can contribute to limiting aviation emissions, but there is currently no evidence that these technologies can support the scale of aviation expansion envisaged by the government.

鈥淔urther aviation expansion carries a significant risk of exacerbating climate impacts by relying on the growth of technologies that are unlikely to materialise in the timescale needed.

鈥淭he UK is experiencing another exceptionally hot summer, while record-breaking severe wildfires have burnt across Western Europe. The Government must reassess the case for expansion. Climate policy must be grounded in what we can demonstrate and evidence, rather than what we hope may become possible.鈥�

Mike Childs, head of policy, science and research at Friends of the Earth, said:听

"After this summer of record-breaking heat and nearly 3,000 excess deaths, this third runway is the equivalent of pouring petrol on a raging wildfire.

"The evidence is clear: there is no route where expansion at Heathrow can be in line with our legally binding climate targets. Suggesting that sustainable aviation fuel and greenhouse gas removals can enable airport expansion is simply trying to pull the wool over people鈥檚 eyes.

"The government has a choice: commit to taking action on the climate seriously, reject Heathrow expansion and constrain excessive flying, or abandon the UK's climate targets and future generations by giving the third runway the go ahead.

"With a weak economic case to support expansion set against a huge impact on the climate and communities, this is the opportunity for the new Prime Minister to truly set a precedent by turning his back to corporate lobbying and say no to a third runway at Heathrow."

The public consultation on the government's Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS) closed earlier this week on Tuesday 1 September, the same day that members of parliament returned from recess to scrutinise the proposal.

Friends of the Earth and the researchers are calling on the UK Government to reject Heathrow expansion and ensure future aviation policy remains consistent with legally binding carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act.

Read the full report here:

Professor Konstantinos Stathopoulos is a leading corporate governance scholar whose research examines how companies are governed and how corporate decision-making affects different stakeholders. His work has a particular focus on executive compensation and the ways in which poor governance practices can affect stakeholder wealth. More recently, his research has examined the interests and influence of stakeholders, including employees, in corporate decision-making and governance.听

He is Vice President of the International Corporate Governance Society, Chair of the Corporate Governance Special Interest Group of the British Accounting and Finance Association and an Otto M酶nsted Visiting Professor at Copenhagen Business School. He was Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Governance: An International Review from 2019 to 2024.

Professor Andreja Zevnik is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research explores political resistance, protest, race, identity and marginalisation.

Her work draws on psychoanalysis, continental philosophy, and postcolonial theory to examine how political identities and forms of resistance are produced. Her recent research has focused particularly on the racialisation and political mobilisation of Roma communities in Europe, Black Lives Matter and other forms of anti-racist political mobilisation. Her research with colleagues has also helped to raise awareness of antigypsyism and strengthen political representation and advocacy among Roma communities in Slovenia.

鈥淥ur newest Fellows represent some of the most influential voices in social science today,鈥� said Will Hutton, President of the Academy of Social Sciences. 鈥淭heir work is expanding knowledge, challenging assumptions and generating insights that are informing and even redefining decision making across government, business, education and civil society.鈥�

鈥淚 am delighted to welcome these leading experts to the Academy, and look forward to working with them to raise the profile and impact of the social sciences across the UK and beyond.鈥�

Using South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, the international team measured radio emissions from neutral hydrogen dating back to a time when the Universe was several billion years younger than it is today.

The findings, published in , demonstrate the potential of a technique known as hydrogen intensity mapping, which allows astronomers to study vast regions of the cosmos more efficiently than ever before.

Key findings

• Researchers directly detected the hydrogen intensity mapping signal using MeerKATradio observations alone.
• The signal comes from hydrogen that existed when the Universe was several billion years younger than today
• The measurement traces cosmic structures across scales of millions of light years.
• The results validate hydrogen intensity mapping as a practical new tool for cosmology, enabling scientists to probe the large-scale structure of the distant Universe.
• The technique could help future telescopes map the Universe more efficiently than traditional galaxy surveys.

How hydrogen intensity mapping works

Neutral hydrogen naturally emits a faint radio signal known as the 21-centimetre line. As the Universe expands, this signal is stretched to longer wavelengths, allowing astronomers to observe hydrogen at different stages of cosmic history.

Rather than detecting individual galaxies one by one, hydrogen intensity mapping measures the combined radio emission from many unresolved galaxies. This makes it possible to study enormous volumes of the Universe and build a three-dimensional picture of its structure.

Until now, reliable detections of this signal at these distances have typically relied on combining radio observations with optical galaxy surveys. In this new study, however, the team has directly detected the hydrogen intensity mapping signal using MeerKAT radio observations alone.

The team analysed around 96 hours of observations from MeerKAT and detected the signal from two periods in cosmic history, corresponding to emissions that have travelled approximately four to five billion years before reaching Earth. The measurements trace hydrogen across scales of several million light years - comparable to the distance between the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxy Andromeda.

What the researchers say

鈥淭his is a very exciting milestone,鈥� said Dr Sourabh Paul, lead author of the study. 鈥淗ydrogen intensity mapping has long been seen as a promising way to map the Universe efficiently, but the signal is extremely faint and difficult to isolate from foreground emission, human-made radio-frequency interference, and instrumental effects. Detecting it directly with MeerKAT shows that this technique is becoming a practical tool for cosmology.鈥�

鈥淭his was a challenging data analysis process, requiring a detailed understanding of the many sources of contamination that can affect such a faint measurement,鈥� Professor Santos added. 鈥淚t is particularly remarkable that the data used in this study were taken in 2018, when MeerKAT had only just started science operations. There is now a rich trove of MeerKAT data waiting to be explored with this method.鈥�

The researchers say the work opens up new opportunities to measure neutral hydrogen over cosmological distances and study how galaxies form and evolve over cosmic time.

Dr Zhaoting Chen, co-author of the study, said: 鈥淣eutral hydrogen is one of the key ingredients for understanding how galaxies form and evolve.

鈥淲ith intensity mapping, we do not need to detect every individual galaxy. Instead, we can measure the collective signal from hydrogen across large cosmic volumes, giving us a new way to study both galaxy evolution and the underlying matter distribution of the Universe.鈥�

The detection also has important implications for future cosmological surveys. Hydrogen intensity mapping is expected to become a major science driver for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, for which MeerKAT is a precursor telescope.

co-author of the study from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester, added: 鈥淢eerKAT continues to open new windows for cosmology. The fact that this signal can be extracted from observations that were not originally designed for hydrogen intensity mapping is very encouraging. It shows the enormous scientific value of MeerKAT data and points the way to future observations with SKAO.鈥�

The researchers say future observations covering larger areas of the sky and using longer observing times will enable astronomers to map hydrogen in even greater detail, helping reveal how galaxies formed, how dark matter shapes the cosmic web, and how the Universe has evolved over billions of years.

Publication details

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:

Key points

• In the age of AI, business communications start to look more alike.

• The researchers generated AI-augmented twins of more than 26,000 real-world crowdfunding campaign descriptions. Across the resulting AI-augmented versions, there was substantially less variation than across the original human-written narratives. Among other differences, the AI-rewritten pitches varied 43% less in how abstract their language was, and variation in length and writing quality fell by around 80%.

• As AI makes polished communications easier to produce, audiences likely develop more demanding expectations about the quality of these communications.

• Business owners may increasingly need to provide evidence for the claims they make about their businesses, as audiences become less willing to rely on plausible-sounding statements alone.

• Cultural competence and storytelling skills could even become more valuable, rather than less, as it becomes more challenging to craft effective business communications in the age of generative AI.

What the experts say

"Generative AI can support entrepreneurs in many aspects of storytelling, but it cannot substitute for the cultural understanding required to navigate an increasingly complex evaluative environment," said lead author Dr Karl Taeuscher from The University of Manchester鈥檚 Alliance 91直播 Business School. "Business owners will still need to understand their audiences, recognise cultural expectations and know how to position their businesses in ways that are both credible and distinctive."

The researchers caution that the study presents a plausible scenario rather than a prediction, as both AI technology and social norms surrounding its use are changing rapidly. The analysis of AI-augmented crowdfunding descriptions is intended to illustrate the research鈥檚 central argument rather than to test it.

Publication details

The research was published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

DOI: .

A common but often overlooked cause of high blood pressure may be hiding in plain sight 鈥� and data from a pioneering wearable device could hold the key to its earlier diagnosis, according to new research.

The study, published in the journal concerns a condition called primary aldosteronism 鈥� a hormone disorder which affects up to one in five people with high blood pressure and puts them at higher risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other major health problems.

Researchers from the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol in the UK, the University of Bergen in Norway, and partners in Stockholm and Athens found that patients with the disorder experienced bursts of hormone production during the day as well as in the night while asleep, when routine blood testing is rarely carried out.

Thanks to an ingenious portable device, developed at the University of Bristol, the hormone levels of patients were able to be monitored round-the-clock in their homes rather than a hospital or research unit. This means hidden irregularities could be uncovered, which may normally go undetected by current testing methods, leading to earlier detection of health conditions.

91直播 co-lead author , Clinical Research Fellow in Automated Sampling Clinical Fellow at the University of Bristol, and Senior Clinical Fellow at Bristol Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: 鈥淧rimary aldosteronism is an important cause of high blood pressure and the most common cause of secondary hypertension we see in our blood pressure clinic. It could be affecting millions of people in the UK. However, due to the way hormones change during the day and the current complexity of the diagnostic process, diagnosis is often delayed or never made at all.

鈥淚n our study, patients were monitored at home during normal activity, and this allowed us to see how hormones changed over time in realistic settings. This approach could potentially revolutionise how we diagnose hypertension and ultimately reduce cardiovascular disease 鈥� particularly heart disease and strokes 鈥� that could have been prevented.鈥�

The proof-of-concept investigation continuously monitored hormone levels every 20 minutes in 60 patients from Bristol, Bergen, Stockholm, and Athens, over a 24-hour period. The patients all wore a lightweight device 鈥� which is the size of a mobile phone and attaches at the waist 鈥� allowing hormones to be measured from the skin, while they carried out normal daily activities, including sleeping at night.

Called U-RHYTHM, the technology was adopted and advanced by the spinout company Dynamic Therapeutics in 2023.

91直播 senior author , UKRI Future Leader Fellow at the University of Manchester, said: 鈥淏y continuously monitoring hormones over 24 hours, we were able to reveal a previously hidden pattern of nocturnal hormone bursts. This gives us a much clearer understanding of the disease and could ultimately help doctors detect it earlier and treat patients more effectively.

鈥淎 more detailed mathematical and computational analysis of daily hormonal profiles could eventually also help uncover earlier and more subtle forms of the disease, opening new opportunities to improve outcomes for patients living with high blood pressure.鈥�

Computational analysis of data from the device allowed researchers to track changes in aldosterone, the hormone responsible for regulating salt and water balance in humans, along with two closely related hormones known as 18-hydroxycortisol and 18-oxocortisol.

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Existing tests may be missing patients because the study results showed aldosterone levels do not stay high all the time. Furthermore, the researchers found that even among some of the most severe cases of the disease, there were periods when hormone levels dipped below the minimum thresholds used to diagnose the condition.

Rather than finding persistently raised hormone levels, the researchers discovered repeated night-time bursts of hormone secretion while the day-night rhythm remained intact.

These hormone spikes, produced by the adrenal glands, were particularly prominent in patients whose disease was caused by a problem in only one adrenal gland rather than both. The abnormal hormone patterns disappeared after surgical removal of the affected adrenal gland, providing further evidence that the bursts were directly linked to the disease.

91直播 co-author , Professor of Medicine at the University of Bristol and inventor of the U-RHYTHM technology, added: 鈥淭he findings suggest that clinicians may need to rethink how they look for the disorder which the Endocrine Society clinical practice guidelines now recommend should be considered for all people with hypertension, also known as high blood pressure.

鈥淔uture diagnosis could move away from single time point blood tests and towards tracking the body's hormone rhythms over time, particularly the overnight patterns that appear to hold crucial clues to disease. Further research is needed to define the best clinical pathways, using dynamic hormone measurement, to ensure early diagnosis of this common and potentially curable cause of high blood pressure.鈥�

The research was funded by EU Horizon 2020, the Trond Mohn Foundation, the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Medical Research Council, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation, the Swedish Medical Research Council and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

The findings support the University of Bristol's research 'Grand Challenge' focus on Understanding and Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and builds on NIHR-funded initiatives aimed at earlier identification of people with hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors.

• Tissue corticosteroid rhythms are dysregulated predominantly during sleep in primary aldosteronism鈥� in . DOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aeb7517

The $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission that will investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy, study how galaxies have evolved over cosmic time, and discover more than 100,000 planets beyond our Solar System.

Using a powerful 2.4-metre mirror, Roman will conduct fast, detailed scans of the sky in infrared light. The telescope will combine Hubble-quality imaging but with a field of view that is more than 200 times larger. Scientists estimate that observations Roman can complete in a day would take the Hubble Space Telescope around four years to achieve.

The mission will also generate an unprecedented volume of data. Roman is expected to capture around 1.4 terabytes of observations every day, producing more than 500 terabytes of data each year. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope has collected around 400 terabytes during more than 35 years of operation.

Dr Eamonn Kerins, from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester was appointed by the European Space Agency to the Roman mission. He leads the Exoplanet Demographics Working Group for the Transits in the Roman Exoplanets Survey (TRExS), one of two science teams working with Roman data to find planets around other stars. TRExS will focus on planets orbiting closer to their host star.

Dr Kerins is also a member of the Roman Galactic Exoplanets Survey (RGES). RGES will use the gravitational lensing effect to find planets further out from their hosts. Roman is the first survey to combine two detection methods to gain a more complete picture of distant planetary systems. Dr Kerins was also part of the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC), the NASA panel responsible for determining the mission's final survey design.

The mission is expected to discover more than 100,000 planets orbiting other stars, dramatically increasing the number of known exoplanets and helping astronomers build the most comprehensive picture yet of planetary systems across our galaxy. NASA Senior Project Scientist Julie McEnery, who helps to lead Roman's scientific programme, is also a Physics alumna of The University of Manchester.

Scientists believe about 25% of the Universe consists of dark matter and around 70% of dark energy, yet neither is fully understood. Roman will study tiny changes in the shapes of millions of galaxies to map the distribution of matter and dark matter and trace how galaxies evolved. The mission will also investigate how the Universe has expanded over time and why that expansion appears to be speeding up, with dark energy thought to be the driving force behind it.

Beyond its studies of exoplanets and the dark Universe, Roman will observe black holes, quasars and other rare cosmic events, providing astronomers with new insights into some of the most extreme objects in the Universe.

The mission follows the launch of the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope in 2023, another major international astronomy mission involving researchers from The University of Manchester. Together, Euclid and Roman will provide complementary observations that will help scientists better understand the evolution and structure of the Universe.

Roman is expected to operate for at least five years, producing vast quantities of data that will be used by astronomers around the world to address some of the most important unanswered questions in astrophysics.

Roman is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 30 August 2026 at 07:26 EDT /12:26 BST / 13:26 CEST. Watch the launch live via NASA鈥檚 channel. Follow for updates.

Key findings

• Presenteeism is no longer simply about going into work while sick - people can now work while unwell from home or elsewhere.
• Digital technology can make it harder to switch off, with employees potentially feeling pressure to remain available through email, messaging platforms and other workplace technology even outside normal working hours.
• Mental health needs to be recognised alongside physical illness when considering why people work while unwell, as existing research has focused heavily on physical sickness.
• Working while ill can take different forms - from completing a normal working day remotely to doing only urgent tasks or checking emails intermittently.
• Employers should consider whether workers have flexibility to reduce their hours or workload when ill, rather than treating working while sick as an inherently good or bad behaviour.

Presenteeism is no longer just about physical presence

The researchers propose redefining presenteeism as the 鈥渂ehaviour of attending work in the state of suboptimal health, with varied location choices and degree of engagement鈥�.

This means that presenteeism should be understood not simply in terms of whether someone turns up to work, but also where they work, what health problem they are experiencing and how much effort they put into working.

The authors argue that existing approaches to measuring presenteeism are too narrow because they generally focus on how often people go to work despite being ill, or on the extent to which illness affects their productivity. Instead, they propose a three-dimensional framework based on health, location and engagement.

Eight ways of working while unwell

The first dimension considers whether presenteeism is triggered by a physical or mental health problem. The second considers whether someone works on-site or remotely. The third considers whether they work a full schedule with normal levels of engagement or reduce their hours and effort. Together, these dimensions produce eight different forms of presenteeism.

For example, an employee with a physical illness might go into the workplace and work a full day, while another might stay at home and only deal with urgent requests. Someone experiencing anxiety or depression could similarly work either remotely or on-site, with either full or reduced engagement.

The researchers say this approach could help distinguish between situations where working while ill may be harmful and situations where employees are able to adapt their work in ways that allow them to protect their health while meeting essential responsibilities.

The paper also highlights concerns about inequality in access to flexible working. Remote working is not available to everyone, meaning that some workers may be able to adapt their working arrangements when ill while others have little choice but to attend their workplace.

What the experts say

鈥淭he world of work has changed dramatically, but our understanding of what it means to work while sick has not necessarily kept pace with this transformation,鈥� said Professor Cary Cooper, 50th Anniversary Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at The University of Manchester. 鈥淭echnology has given people much greater flexibility over where and when they work, but that flexibility can become a trap if employees feel they have to be available all the time.鈥�

Making flexibility work for employees

The authors argue that future research should examine whether giving employees greater control over their location, working hours and workload can make presenteeism a more adaptive behaviour. They also call for greater attention to mental health-related presenteeism, which they say has been relatively neglected by existing research.

The researchers stress that working while sick should not automatically be regarded as either positive or negative. Instead, they argue that understanding how someone works while unwell - and the circumstances surrounding that decision - is essential to understanding its effects on health and performance.

The paper concludes that organisations need to strike a balance between maintaining performance and protecting employee wellbeing as digital technology continues to reshape the workplace.

Publication details

The paper was published in journal Health Psychology Research.

DOI:

In recent weeks, a range of open letters have been published highlighting the importance of Jodrell Bank, e-MERLIN and the wider radio astronomy capabilities based at the Observatory. Support has come from leading figures in science, culture and public life, as well as from organisations representing the international radio astronomy community.

Lending their voices to support the positive impact, which the whole of the Jodrell Bank site has given to UK science and culture, signatories include Professor Brian Cox, Sir Brian May, Tim Peake, Chris Hadfield, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Simon Armitage, Johnny Marr, members of New Order and Elbow, Jarvis Cocker and Christopher Eccleston. Many have longstanding links with Jodrell Bank through public engagement programmes, artistic collaborations and the Bluedot festival.

Alongside this, letters have been received from international research organisations, observatory directors, scientific advisory groups and astronomy institutes from across the UK and Europe. Together, they underline the value placed on Jodrell Bank's scientific capabilities, its role in training future generations of scientists and engineers, and its contribution to international research partnerships.

The letters follow the announcement that funding for e-MERLIN, the UK's national radio telescope network operated from Jodrell Bank Observatory, is due to end in March 2028 unless alternative support can be secured.

At the heart of Jodrell Bank's scientific work is e-MERLIN, the UK's national radio telescope network. By linking seven radio telescopes across England, it enables scientists to study the universe with a level of detail comparable to some of the world's most advanced astronomical instruments.

The University has made clear its commitment to securing the future of the Lovell telescope and radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank and is continuing discussions with partners on potential long-term funding solutions.

The growing body of support from across the scientific community and beyond, underlining the importance of Jodrell Bank to research, skills, education and inspiration for future generations.

Find the full list of letters here:

It is the culmination of over a decade of international collaboration by of The University of Manchester, Professor Juan Ruso of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and Dr Natalia Hassan of the Metropolitan Technological University in Chile.

The discovery could have far reaching implications on the treatment of clotting disorders like haemophilia or the healthcare for patients on blood thinners like warfarin, as scabs forming on the surface of blood are vital to sealing a wound and keeping the site free of infection.

It could also explain aspects of how a lung can collapse in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as fibrinogen disrupts the oily layer that keeps the airways open during breathing.

It may also transform the design of biosensors that allow people to monitor how their blood is performing, as the sensors rely on understanding how proteins disrupt those surfaces.

For more than twenty years the field has relied on a 鈥榮ingle tilting layer鈥� model for fibrinogen where the long protein molecules lay flat on the surface at first and then leaned upright as more of them arrive.

But the new study, published in the on today (20/08/25), shows the benchmark model missed that fibrinogen stays lying flat and builds multiple layers that stack like sheets of paper. These layers grow thicker and more complete as more molecules arrive.

This new information helps to explain how the long protein molecules line up on the surface of blood where fibres called fibrin form the basis of the scab, a solid film formed during evaporation of fluid at the blood surface, that seals a wound.

The scientists used an advanced technique called neutron reflectometry at the part-UK-funded Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in France, where Dr Campbell was formerly based.

The team demonstrated that this behaviour holds true across multiple ranges of concentration and in very different solution conditions, showing the mechanism is not a rare quirk but a universal feature of fibrinogen when it contacts air.

Principal investigator Dr Campbell explained: "It's never easy challenging an established model of how molecules behave in nature.

鈥淏ut through using the advanced technique neutron reflectometry on the FIGARO instrument at the ILL research facility, we could see the structure of these protein surfaces in more detail than scientists had seen before.

鈥淎lthough lab data recorded in the past was compatible with the concept of a 鈥榮ingle tilting layer鈥� model, our new data show multiple layering as a fundamentally different way of working.鈥�

Dr Glenn Coope, a former PhD student at The University of Manchester but now based at Lund University in Sweden, said: "When the covid-19 pandemic struck, I spent time analysing structural data of how fibrinogen gathered at liquid surfaces while working from home.

鈥淭hen after returning to work at the University, I applied additional experimental methods.

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like we now have a full circle moment, as our findings may help scientists to understand better the behaviour of fibrinogen in the lungs of patients suffering from ARDS, a condition that tragically claimed so many lives during the pandemic.鈥�

Dr Campbell added: 鈥淥ur discovery sheds new light on how scabs form on the surface of an open wound, where fibrinogen works in a protein鈥憆ich zone to stop bleeding.

鈥淗aving better understanding of the structure of fibrinogen at liquid surfaces can only help in the search for new and better treatments for patients whose wound refuse to heal.鈥�

• The paper Redefining Fibrinogen Self鈥慉ssembly at the Air鈥揥ater Interface: An Intriguing Story with Multiple Layers is published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. DOI
• Other researchers from the University of Manchester and Institut Laue-Langevin contributed to the study

In a survey of 4,270 adults from across the UK, the researchers found that 79% had already used some form of self-monitoring, ranging from tracking blood pressure and blood sugar to monitoring fitness, diet, eyesight, hearing and mental wellbeing.

Published in the journal the findings suggest self-monitoring could play a major role in helping people spot health problems earlier and take greater control of their wellbeing.

The study was part-funded by a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator award to lead researcher Professor Kevin Munro and was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: 91直播鈥檚 Hearing Health Theme.

The results chime with the Governments aspirations for health monitoring technologies to be part of routine care to support proactive health monitoring and preventative action.

The study also found that 86% of respondents would be willing to monitor at least one aspect of their health if recommended by the NHS.

Trust in the technology was high, with between 70% and 94% of participants saying they trusted the results produced by self-monitoring tools.

More than three-quarters (78%) said they would be happy for their results to be sent automatically to their GP.

The researchers say the findings highlight growing public support for a future in which patients can play a more active role in managing their health from home.

People who used self-monitoring said the main benefits included increased awareness of their health, a greater sense of control, easier access to information, more balanced conversations with healthcare professionals and improved psychological support.

However, the study also revealed that participants reported concerns including anxiety, obsessive testing, confusion about results, poor motivation to continue monitoring and worries about technology.

And between 14% and 38% of people said they would take no action if self-monitoring identified a potential problem, depending on the health issue being monitored.

Younger adults and people with higher levels of education were more likely to use self-monitoring, while men, older adults, those living in deprived areas and people with lower education levels were less willing to do so.

The researchers say these differences risk creating new health inequalities if self-monitoring becomes a larger part of healthcare in the future.

Lead researcher from The University of Manchester said: "Our findings show that self-monitoring of health is already a normal part of life for many people across the UK and that there is strong public enthusiasm for doing more of it in the future.

鈥淪elf-monitoring has huge potential to support earlier detection of problems, encourage preventative action and help people take greater control of their health.

Professor Munro, who is also an NIHR Senior Investigator added: 鈥淗owever, we must ensure that nobody is left behind and that these technologies are introduced in ways that are accessible, understandable and equitable for all sections of society.

鈥淣evertheless, self-monitoring could help transform healthcare through more proactive and preventative approaches though further research is needed to ensure it can be used effectively and fairly alongside traditional clinical care.鈥�

• The paper Use, trustworthiness and willingness to self-monitor health and personal wellness: a UK population survey is available . DOI 10.1186/s13690-026-02035-6
• Image created with AI