In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from The University of Manchester and Lancaster University have isolated and characterised uranocenium, the positively charged form of a landmark uranium compound called uranocene. The work shows that this long-sought molecule is stable, and that it behaves in a way that challenges how chemists usually think about bonding in heavy elements.

Uranocene is a ‘sandwich’ molecule: a single uranium atom held between two flat rings, each made of eight carbon atoms. It is the uranium counterpart of ferrocene, an iron sandwich molecule whose discovery contributed to the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ferrocene readily gives up an electron to form the ferrocenium cation, a switch so clean and reliable that it is used as a reference standard in laboratories worldwide. Until now, no one had been able to isolate the equivalent uranium compound.

Solving a decades-old puzzle

When chemists first tried to remove an electron from uranocene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the molecule appeared to fall apart, giving poorly defined products. The Manchester team found that the problem lay not with uranocene itself, but with a fluorine-containing salt routinely used in those experiments to help solutions conduct electricity better, an electrolyte. The uranocenium cation strips fluorine from this salt and decomposes in the process.

By choosing a different chemical to remove the electron and a less reactive solvent, the team isolated uranocenium as crystals stable at room temperature. The breakthrough began partly by chance: the reaction was designed for a different purpose, but uranocenium was produced instead.

The team, including Cameron Deakin, Iulia Turcas, Benjamin Réant, Liam Griffin, John Seed, Adam Brookfield, Professor David Collison, Professor Eric McInnes and Dr Conrad Goodwin from Manchester, and Dr Andrew Kerridge from Lancaster University, then studied the compounds in detail. They used single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which maps the positions of atoms in a crystal, alongside magnetic and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements, which probe the unpaired electrons inside a molecule, and computer modelling. Together, these confirmed that the uranium has given up one more electron than in uranocene, raising its ‘oxidation state’ from +4 to +5.

Electrochemical experiments, which measure how easily a molecule gains or loses electrons, showed that uranocene and uranocenium switch back and forth as cleanly as ferrocene and ferrocenium do. This signalled to the researchers that the molecular structure barely changes when the electron is added or removed.

Often, when a metal atom loses an electron, it pulls surrounding atoms closer because its greater positive charge attracts them more strongly. Bonds in uranium compounds are usually held together mainly by this kind of electrostatic attraction, so the team expected the uranium–carbon distances to shrink noticeably. Instead, X-ray measurements showed they shortened by only around 0.02 Å (two trillionths of a metre), several times less than expected from the change in uranium-ion size alone.

Computational calculations explained why. When uranium loses an electron, it and the carbon atoms it binds to share electrons much more than in the unoxidised form, a type of bonding known as covalent bonding. The uranium share of the key bonding electrons rises from around 30% to over 40%, whereas normally these carbon atoms would hold onto their electrons much more tightly. This builds up electron density between the uranium and carbon atoms, and because electrons repel one another, the crowding resists any further squeezing together. The two effects balance, leaving the molecule almost unchanged in size, both in crystals and in solution.

Contributing to fundamental chemistry

The findings matter most for fundamental chemistry. Uranocene was one of the first molecules to show that uranium’s outermost electrons, in so-called f-orbitals, take part in chemical bonding, and it remains a benchmark for understanding how heavy elements bond. With uranocenium, researchers now have a matching set of uranium sandwich molecules in three oxidation states (+3, +4 and +5), allowing them to track changes in bonding while the structure stays almost the same.

The work also provides a rare example where electron sharing, rather than simple electrostatic attraction, controls the shape of a uranium molecule. Next, the team plans to explore the reactivity of uranocenium and to test whether heavier elements, such as neptunium, can form similar compounds.

The new Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Human Neural Development will integrate world-leading expertise with cutting-edge research to fill in major gaps in the fundamental understanding of brain growth and development.

Led by King’s College London, in partnership with University College London (UCL) and the University of Manchester, the key aim is to understand the critical mechanisms underpinning early brain development, from the womb to early childhood, and how their disruption can inform effective treatments.

Until recently, there were very few ways to study the development of the human brain in a meaningful way. Now, using the latest technological developments, including the ability to image the developing brain before and after birth, grow models of brain tissue in the laboratory, and harness the power of artificial intelligence, the centre will provide unprecedented insights into the development of the human cerebral cortex, the region of our brain that enables language, planning and creativity. Using these insights from the laboratory, the centre aims to develop markers of healthy brain development, which can be measured in babies and children to help develop and evaluate treatments in clinic.

Centre lead Professor Oscar Marín, based at King’s College London, said: “The human brain is a bit of a black box.

“We can measure patterns of brain activity from the outside, and we can even potentially connect them to what happens later in life, but we don't yet know how these signals actually relate to what's happening inside the child’s brain.

“This means we cannot tell which signals reflect something important about how the circuits inside the brain are developing. Until we can make that distinction, we cannot reliably predict which children are at risk or intervene early enough to make a difference.

“We have now reached a point where the technologies exist to close that gap, and we can turn that understanding into real differences for children and families.

“The one thing that makes King’s a very special place to tackle this problem is that there are very few places in the world that has this universe of discovery scientists and clinical scientists and facilities that will allow us to bring this program together.”

The centre will use organoid technologies to build human models of brain tissue in the newly established Brain Organoids Laboratory at King’s, which was funded through an initial donation of £1.5m from the Wolfson Foundation in 2024.

This pioneering technology allows researchers Professor Marin and Dr Laura Pellegrini to model how parts of the human brain develop and to tailor their genetic makeup to understand the specific genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders.

“We have the tools to essentially generate a primordial mini functional tissue that resembles a part of the cerebral cortex. This would help us to understand what goes wrong with, for example, with the cellular architecture in certain diseases,” commented Dr Pellegrini, Wellcome Trust CDA Fellow at King’s, on the doors opened by organoid technologies.

Professor Tomoki Arichi, Professor of Perinatal Neuroscience at King’s, and honorary consultant at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, will form part of a clinical team collaborating closely with clinical lead Professor Shruti Garg from the University of Manchester to help translate findings from the laboratory into new treatments and improvements in clinical care for children.

Professor Shruti Garg, Centre translational lead and Deputy director, based at The University of Manchester, said: "Working within NHS clinical networks in Manchester, we'll turn discoveries about brain development into tools clinicians can use making a real difference for children and families here and across the country."

Dr Ilias Tachtsidis, Centre Innovation Lead and Deputy Director, based in UCL’s Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, will lead on engineering aspects of the project. He added: "To deliver this ambitious vision of the centre, we need first-of-their-kind technologies that can safely and non-invasively image brain biology across scales—from blood vessels that deliver oxygen and nutrients to brain cells, down to the mitochondria that power them. This is a major engineering challenge we will tackle at UCL."

Professor Emily Jones, Professor of Developmental Translational Neuroscience at King’s, will follow how newly identified markers of healthy brain development translate to developmental outcomes beyond infancy at the new Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People.

When genetic mutations and environmental factors affect brain development in infants, the consequences are felt throughout their life.

These outcomes are disproportionately felt by minorities and families from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge Led Themes at MRC, said: “We are delighted to announce this new MRC CoRE for Human Neural Development, backed by £50 million of public investment.

“By untangling the mysteries of human brain development in the very early stages, this centre offers a powerful opportunity to transform lives, giving us the tools to make earlier and fairer interventions for a future where every child has the best possible chance to realise their full potential.”

AI-based protein design is already transforming protein science, but RFD4-Proteina differs in how it tackles the design problem. The model can consider several interconnected aspects of structure and function simultaneously, refining a protein’s amino-acid sequence and three-dimensional structure alongside the molecules with which it interacts. It can also direct more computational effort towards promising designs, helping researchers identify candidates with specific functions more efficiently.

Researchers at The University of Manchester's Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB), including Professor Anthony Green, Dr Henry Jones and Dr Zefei Xu worked in collaboration with IPD to apply RFD4-Proteina to design de novo enzymes for low cost and sustainable production of global health drugs.

One of the team's most significant tests focused on the synthesis of lenacapavir, a breakthrough drug used for HIV prevention. RFD4-Proteina was used to design entirely new enzymes capable of catalysing a key amide-bond-forming reaction involved in the drug's synthesis. Of the 67 designs selected for experimental testing, four showed clear activity, with the best converting 79% of a bulky chiral amine into the desired amide product. The enzyme also displays high selectivity for the S-enantiomer of the amine as required for the Lenacapavir synthesis. This reaction is particularly challenging because the enzyme must favour the desired amide bond-forming process while suppressing a competing reaction with water which is present in a vast excess in enzyme mediated transformations.

This research represents a critical proof-of-concept demonstration that new enzymes can be designed computationally to promote challenging steps in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. 
 

Proteins for health, the environment and industry

Proteins are essential for life and perform a wide range of functions, for example, enzymes speed up chemical reactions involved in metabolism, while antibodies bind to pathogens to help fight infection. Proteins are also important in manufacturing chemicals and materials used in everyday products, including medicines and fuels. But designing new functional proteins such as enzymes is difficult.

Enzymes found in nature have traditionally provided the starting point for scientists seeking to engineer biocatalysts with useful functions. More recently, computational protein design has made it possible to design completely new proteins. However, this remains difficult as scientists must find a combination of amino-acid sequence, three-dimensional structure and molecular interactions capable of performing the intended task from an enormous number of possibilities.

Developed by Professor David Baker and his team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD), RFD4-Proteina was designed to address this problem. It combines two existing AI models – the IPD’s RosettaFold Diffusion line and Proteina-Complexa from NVIDIA – allowing scientists to design brand new proteins with a specified function, focusing laboratory testing on a handful of the most promising candidates.

“RFD4-Proteina will open the door to new solutions in medicine, sustainability, materials and biotechnology,” said David Baker, IPD director and professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Baker is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In silico – the virtual world of protein design

RFD4-Proteina’s biomolecular reasoning is novel; it learns the “language” of existing proteins by training on a large dataset, and tests in silico a huge number of design possibilities to fit a desired function.

Like language models with adjustable “thinking”, RFD4-Proteina can devote more computation to difficult problems. It concurrently refines a protein’s sequence and structure alongside the structures of interacting molecules, so that a change in one seamlessly informs changes in the others.

Across computational benchmarks, RFD4-Proteina achieves design success rates five to 10 times higher than previous models while generating protein candidates five to 10 times faster. Lab bench tests validated that the model’s protein outputs act as anticipated in an experimental setting. This testing demonstrated success across biomolecular tasks of varying sizes, complexities and functions. Importantly, the model is open source under a BSD-3 licence, allowing researchers to use it in their own protein-design work and build upon it.

This model offers a way to design proteins faster and more accurately to perform specific jobs, potentially accelerating early-stage development of new medicines, antibodies, diagnostic molecules, enzymes and industrial biotechnology processes.

A student from The University of Manchester is preparing to climb Africa’s highest mountain to raise money for young people with cancer, drawing on his own family’s experiences of the disease.

Next August, 30 year old Joseph Mooney from Whitefield will take on the challenge of trekking up the 5895 metre Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity supporting young people facing cancer.

For Joseph, the challenge is deeply personal - he lost his grandfather to pancreatic cancer in 2022, his mother and sister have both survived ovarian cancer, and his uncle is currently receiving treatment for lung cancer at Manchester Royal Infirmary and The Christie.

Joseph is planning a series of training hikes over the next nine months, including revisiting the UK’s Three Peaks - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon - ahead of the expedition. He climbed Ben Nevis in 2024 and first hiked Snowdon as a teenager. He also plans to hike the Rock of Gibraltar when visiting his mother, who lives there.

Earlier this year, Joseph completed a multi-day trek through Morocco’s Atlas Mountains - but he says Kilimanjaro will be the biggest and toughest challenge he has faced.

His passion for hiking is also closely connected to his own wellbeing. Joseph says spending time in nature, hiking alone and getting outdoors help him manage his mental health and provide a welcome sense of perspective.

“Cancer has affected my family in so many ways, and it is a cause that is very close to my heart,” he said. “Having lost my grandad and seen my mum and sister come through cancer, with my uncle currently undergoing treatment, I know how much the disease can affect not just the person diagnosed but their whole family. I wanted to do something positive with those experiences and take on a challenge that could make a difference to other people going through something similar.

“Hiking is also something that means a lot to me personally. Getting out into nature and pushing myself on a trail can do wonders for my wellbeing. Kilimanjaro will be the biggest and hardest trek I’ve ever done, but knowing I’m doing it to support young people with cancer will make it all worthwhile.”

Teenage Cancer Trust provides specialist nursing care and support for teenagers and young adults with cancer, including through specialist hospital units and services across the UK. Joseph hopes to use his training hikes to raise awareness of the charity as well as funds, wearing a Teenage Cancer Trust T-shirt on the trails and talking to fellow hikers about its work.

He is appealing to the University of Manchester community and the wider public to support his fundraising effort. Donations of any size will help him work towards his fundraising target and support the charity’s work with young people affected by cancer.

Support Joseph’s fundraising

To donate to Joseph’s Kilimanjaro challenge, visit his JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cachpage-joseph-mooney

Joseph will be posting about his training and his climb on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joemoon_95

International pressure intended to encourage democratic reform can sometimes strengthen the very governments it seeks to hold to account, according to new research from The University of Manchester.

The study examined Zimbabwe's decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth in December 2003, finding that the move was driven less by a rejection of international institutions in principle than by the ruling party's determination to remain in power.

Why Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 amid concerns about its presidential election and democratic standards. When the suspension continued following a Commonwealth meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, in December 2003, President Robert Mugabe's government announced its withdrawal.

But the research, by Dr Arthur Shirichena of The University of Manchester and Pofela Ndzozi of Lupane State University in Zimbabwe, argues that withdrawal was a strategic political choice.

The authors examined documentary evidence, including Commonwealth and Zimbabwean government records, parliamentary material and contemporary reporting, to understand the decisions behind the country's departure.

They argue that meeting the conditions for reinstatement – including improvements to elections, media freedom, judicial independence and political violence – risked weakening ZANU-PF's control.

The government continued to pursue a return to the Commonwealth while that appeared possible on terms it could accept. Once the Abuja outcome made that prospect less realistic, leaving became a way to protect its domestic position rather than accept reforms that might undermine it.

Turning criticism into a defence of sovereignty

The study finds that the government also used international criticism to reinforce its political narrative at home.

By presenting the dispute as an attack on Zimbabwe's sovereignty and its anti-colonial liberation struggle, ZANU-PF could portray external pressure as foreign interference. The government could also cast domestic opponents who called for reform as aligned with outside interests.

This helped the ruling party mobilise political support and shift responsibility for Zimbabwe's international isolation onto its critics.

The authors argue that this strategy served the interests of the ruling coalition, even if withdrawal reduced Zimbabwe's diplomatic access and standing. The government's political survival, rather than the country's wider national interest, was the central consideration.

Lessons for international pressure today

The research highlights a challenge for governments and international organisations seeking to encourage democratic change: diplomatic isolation does not automatically lead to reform.

Where leaders see international demands as a threat to their hold on power, they may reject those demands, challenge the legitimacy of their critics or use the dispute to rally domestic support.

The authors caution that the Zimbabwe case does not provide a universal explanation for how governments respond to international pressure, but say it shows why the likely domestic political consequences of diplomatic action need to be considered alongside its intended goals.

Publication details

The research was published in
The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

Title:
Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth: a foreign policy analysis through the logics of consequences and appropriateness

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2026.2741272

URL:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2026.2741272

Nicola will join the University Executive and lead our finance function, bringing a wealth of experience, strategic insight and a deep understanding of the higher education sector as we continue to deliver From Manchester for the world and ensure the University’s long-term financial sustainability. 

Nicola joins us from the University of Liverpool, where she is currently Chief Financial Officer with responsibility for finance, procurement, strategic planning and strategic change, as well as serving as Executive Lead for Sustainability. During her career, she has led major finance transformation programmes, strengthened institutional financial planning and performance and helped shape investment, partnership and sustainability strategies to support long-term success.  

With more than 25 years’ leadership experience, including over two decades in higher education, Nicola has built a reputation for combining strong financial stewardship with collaborative leadership and informed decision making. She brings a proven ability to navigate complexity in large organisations and respond proactively to challenging external environments.

This appointment also marks a welcome return to Manchester. Between 2005 and 2017, Nicola held a number of senior finance roles at the University, including Deputy Director of Finance, Head of Faculty Finance for Medical and Human Sciences, Head of Management Accounts and Financial Controller. She therefore joins us not only with extensive experience in the sector, but also with an understanding of our people and our values. Earlier in her career, she worked in professional practice with Baker Tilly, EY and Grant Thornton.

Nicola is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a BSc in Mathematics from Newcastle University and an MSc in Applied Mathematics and Fluid Mechanics from The University of Manchester.

Please join us in giving Nicola a very warm welcome back to Manchester. We look forward to working with her and wish her every success in the role.

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor, said: “Nicola brings a wealth of experience, sector insight and a strong track record of financial leadership and the opportunities and challenges facing the sector today. Having previously had a number of senior roles at Manchester, she also knows the University well and shares our commitment to the ambitions we’ve set out in our strategy. I am delighted to welcome Nicola back to the University and look forward to working with her.”

Nicola Davies said: “I am delighted to be returning to The University of Manchester as Chief Financial Officer. Having both worked and studied here, Manchester is an institution I know well and care about deeply. I am looking forward to working with colleagues across the University to build on its strong foundations, support its strategic ambitions and ensure that our financial planning and investment continue to deliver real impact for our students, staff, city and wider communities.”

Nicola will take up the role on Monday 8 February 2027.

The University of Manchester has been selected to establish a new ELIAS Node, becoming only the second UK institution to join the European AI innovation network, alongside Cambridge.

The Manchester Node is one of eight newly selected nodes announced at the ELIAS Frontier AI Innovation Summit in Stuttgart, Germany, on 8 October 2026. The expansion brings the ELIAS Alliance to 16 nodes across nine European countries, strengthening collaboration in frontier artificial intelligence research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Led by Professor Sophia Ananiadou, Professor of Computer Science and Deputy Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, the Manchester ELIAS Node will be hosted at the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research and Innovation at The University of Manchester.

The ELIAS Alliance (European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science), initiated by the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), brings together leading AI researchers, universities, innovation centres and industry partners to strengthen Europe's leadership in AI research and its translation into technological, economic and societal impact.

Advancing frontier AI research and innovation

The Manchester ELIAS Node will connect the University's internationally recognised strengths in artificial intelligence with interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship and industrial innovation.

Its research activities will focus on three complementary areas:

• Trustworthy AI for digital twins, in-silico trials and regulatory-grade evidence, bringing together multimodal learning, causal AI, simulation and computational medicine to support reliable scientific and healthcare applications.
• Open foundation models, agentic AI and trustworthy AI, advancing language technologies, domain-specialised foundation models, multilingual AI, intelligent agents and methods for evaluating the reliability and safety of AI systems.
• AI foundations for scientific discovery and complex systems, including probabilistic machine learning, optimisation, uncertainty quantification, scientific machine learning and human-centred AI.

The Node builds on Manchester's established research environment, including the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM), ELLIS Manchester, the Centre for AI Fundamentals, the University's doctoral training programmes and the Christabel Pankhurst Institute. It will support new opportunities for collaborative research, doctoral education, researcher mobility, open-source AI development and knowledge exchange across Europe.

Manchester ELIAS Node leadership and research team

The Manchester ELIAS Node is led by Professor Sophia Ananiadou, who serves as its Lead and Spokesperson within the European ELIAS Alliance. Her research spans natural language processing, large language models, trustworthy and agentic AI, and biomedical and scientific language technologies. The Node brings together leading researchers from The University of Manchester and European academic partners.

ELLIS Fellows associated with the Manchester Node:

• Professor Sophia Ananiadou – The University of Manchester; Manchester ELIAS Node Lead and Spokesperson.
• Professor Magnus Rattray – The University of Manchester; ELLIS Manchester Lead, Machine Learning and AI.
• Professor Alejandro Frangi – The University of Manchester; Computational Medicine and AI.
• Professor Samuel Kaski – The University of Manchester and ELLIS Institute Finland; Machine Learning and AI.

Manchester Node Members:

• Dr Mauricio Alvarez – Machine Learning and AI Fundamentals.
• Professor Julia Handl – Optimisation, Machine Learning and Decision Sciences.
• Dr Mingfei Sun – Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning and Open-Source AI.
• Dr Tingting Mu – Theoretical Machine Learning and AI Fundamentals.
• Dr Claudia Lindner – Translational Medical Imaging and AI for Health.
• Professor Matthew Sperrin – Biostatistics, Health Data Science and Causal Inference.

Together, the team brings complementary expertise across AI foundations, trustworthy machine learning, language technologies, biomedical AI, optimisation and scientific discovery, supporting the Node's research, innovation and training activities.

Connecting Manchester to Europe's AI research community

As the second ELIAS Node in the UK, Manchester will strengthen the country's contribution to European AI research and innovation. Working closely with the Cambridge ELIAS Node, Manchester will help establish a stronger north–south connection within the UK, while developing new collaborations with European partners, including the ELLIS Institute Finland, ELLIS Unit Franconia and ELLIS Unit Barcelona. These partnerships will support joint research initiatives, researcher exchanges, doctoral training, innovation activities and participation in the wider ELIAS network. The Node will also contribute to the ELIAS Alliance Innovation PhD initiative, connecting doctoral researchers with opportunities in AI research, entrepreneurship, industrial collaboration and international mobility.

Building on Greater Manchester's industry and innovation ecosystem

A distinctive strength of the Manchester ELIAS Node is its integration with the region's growing AI, life sciences and innovation ecosystem.

The Node is supported by a network of academic, industry and innovation organisations, including:

• Unit M – Supporting science entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation.
• University of Manchester Innovation Factory – Supporting technology transfer, intellectual property and commercialisation.
• Turing Innovation Catalyst – Connecting AI research with industry, startups and regional economic growth.
• Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC) – Supporting innovation, industrial collaboration and translation.
• Bionow – Connecting the Node with the regional life sciences and biotechnology industry.
• Cambridge–Manchester Innovation Partnership – Strengthening collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation across the two cities.

The Node will also draw on established industry relationships and wider international partnerships to create pathways from frontier AI research to real-world applications. These collaborations will help researchers and students engage with entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors, supporting the development of innovative AI technologies and new ventures.

A new chapter for Manchester's European AI collaboration

Professor Sophia Ananiadou, Lead of the Manchester ELIAS Node, said:“We are delighted that The University of Manchester has been selected to join the ELIAS Alliance as its second UK Node. This is an important recognition of Manchester's research excellence in artificial intelligence and the strength of our interdisciplinary research community. The Manchester Node brings together outstanding expertise in AI foundations, trustworthy and agentic AI, language technologies and AI for scientific discovery. We look forward to developing new opportunities for research collaboration, doctoral training and innovation through the ELIAS Alliance.

Professor Ian Hall, Director Christabel Pankhurst Institute at The University of Manchester, said: "I am excited at the potential for the Manchester ELIAS Node and look forward to hosting it in the Christabel Pankhurst Institute. Trust and openness in AI solutions for health research are critical for public and clinical acceptability, and we look forward to leading work on these and other key foundations with partners in the European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science"

The establishment of the Manchester ELIAS Node reinforces The University of Manchester's commitment to internationally leading AI research, interdisciplinary collaboration and responsible innovation. Hosted by the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, the Node will provide a new platform for connecting research excellence with European collaboration, entrepreneurship and societal benefit.

Further information: ELIAS Alliance expands its pan-European network

Scientists at The University of Manchester have led a major UK effort to build half of the 137 giant neutrino sensors being built in the UK for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), marking an important step towards the experiment’s search for answers.

DUNE is a major international science project which, once complete, will send a beam of neutrinos 1,300 kilometres across the US, in a mission to explain why the Universe is made of matter rather than antimatter.

Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the Universe and may hold clues to this mystery, but they rarely interact with matter, making them extremely difficult to detect.

DUNE will study the behaviour of these particles and their antimatter counterparts, antineutrinos to explain why matter dominates over antimatter in the Universe. The study will also look for neutrinos from exploding stars, known as supernovae.

A UK-wide production effort

The giant neutrino sensors, known as Anode Plane Assemblies (APAs), will detect the tiny electrical signals produced when neutrinos interact with liquid argon inside DUNE's enormous underground detector.

Each APA is 6.3 metres tall and 2.3 metres wide - roughly the height of a two-storey building. The sensors are being manufactured at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory.

by a team of 25 technicians and engineers led by The Univeristy of Manchester’s, Professor Justin Evans, at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory by a team of 25 technicians and engineers, as part of a UK project whose Principal Investigator is Professor Justin Evans of The University of Manchester.

Together, the thousands of wires on the APAs will provide scientists with information used to reconstruct the position and movement of particles produced in neutrino interactions.

Professor Justin Evans, University of Manchester, PI of the DUNE-UK APA project, said: “This is a major step towards realising DUNE. We are building a detector with the potential to answer some of the deepest questions in particle physics: why our Universe is dominated by matter, how neutrinos fit into our understanding of fundamental physics, and what we can learn from neutrinos produced by a supernova.

“DUNE will be one of the world’s leading neutrino experiments, and it is enormously exciting to see the detector that will enable this science now taking shape.”

Flagship instrumentation

DUNE is one of the most ambitious particle-physics experiments ever constructed. It will send a beam of neutrinos from Fermilab in Illinois to the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, 1,300 kilometres away.

University of Manchester researchers are playing leading roles across the DUNE project, from developing the computing systems needed to process up to 30 petabytes of data a year from the detector, to testing the APAs at CERN and planning their installation nearly a mile underground in South Dakota.

Extraordinary engineering

The APAs are the primary readout elements of one of DUNE's four kilotonne Far Detector modules, making them one of the UK's flagship instrumentation contributions to the experiment.

The UK is responsible for producing 137 of the 150 APAs required for the experiment.

Each carries approximately 24 kilometres of hair-thin copper-beryllium wire, held in place by thousands of precision connections across its enormous frame.

When a neutrino interacts inside the liquid argon, it produces charged particles that leave behind electrical signals in the detector.

The APA wires detect those signals, allowing scientists to reconstruct what happened and study the neutrino’s properties.

The completed APAs will ultimately be installed nearly a mile underground at Sanford Underground Research Facility, where DUNE's detector will contain tens of thousands of tonnes of liquid argon.

To date, eight completed APAs have arrived at Fermilab for final testing, ahead of their installation at the underground detector in South Dakota.

Collaboration in action

Ian Lazarus, Head of Technology at STFC's Daresbury Laboratory, said: "Reaching the halfway point on APA production is a fantastic milestone for everyone involved. These are exceptionally large and technically demanding detector components, and getting to this stage reflects the skill, care and teamwork that has gone into every part of the programme.

"From the engineers building the APAs at Daresbury Laboratory, to the university teams supplying components, carrying out testing and providing scientific expertise, this has been a genuinely UK-wide effort.

"It's exciting to see this work taking shape as part of DUNE, and to know that these detector panels will ultimately help scientists investigate some of the biggest questions about our Universe."

Looking ahead to discovery

Professor Dave Newbold, formerly executive director of National Laboratories at STFC and senior responsible officer for DUNE UK and now co-spokesperson of the DUNE collaboration said: “The APA team have accomplished a huge milestone by reaching the halfway point in their production. The unique and complex components that are now making their way from the UK to the USA are a central component of the DUNE neutrino detector, and vital to address the ambitious scientific goals of the experiment. It’s great to know that profound questions about the universe are soon going to be answered through the efforts of workers across the UK, in industry, laboratories, and universities.”

With half of the UK's 137 APAs now complete, work continues towards delivering all remaining assemblies to the experiment. The remaining APAs are due to be completed in April/May 2029 and delivered for installation in South Dakota between January and November 2029.

The graphic novella No Fixed Address, written by Sotiria Kyriakidou and Cristina Temenos from the Department of Geography, has been featured on a Greek national news programme, bringing University of Manchester research on homelessness and urban crisis to a wider public audience.

The novella follows the stories of two men navigating the everyday realities of life in homeless shelters. Based on findings from the Urban Crisis research project, it explores how housing insecurity, public health, austerity and social change shape people’s experiences of homelessness, including the working conditions of staff in shelter spaces. By using the accessible format of a graphic novella, the project translates academic research into a form that can reach readers beyond the university, including policymakers, practitioners, students, and members of the public.

Its coverage on Greek national television highlights both the public relevance of the research and the importance of creative methods for communicating urgent social issues.

The relative North–South gap in this age group has therefore more than tripled over four decades. These comparisons take account of differences in age and sex between the populations.

In the 1980s, northern women in their late twenties and thirties had no excess mortality compared with the South; today every five-year band of women aged 25–49 shows a 35–60% excess, and the gap for women has grown 3.5-fold overall, from around 12% to 41%.

In this study, “northern excess mortality” means how much higher death rates are in the North than in the South of England in the same year.

The study, led by researchers from the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester and Health Equity North, analysed national death registrations and population estimates from 1981 to 2024. It examined how the divide varied by age and sex, and whether trends changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mortality rates fell overall during the four decades studied, although improvements were interrupted by the pandemic. The North–South gap persisted, and the widening among adults aged 25–49 began well before COVID-19.

During 2010–19, the relative North–South mortality gap among 25–49-year-olds widened for both women and men, with a faster increase among women.

There was no evidence of a narrowing of the gap during 2020–24 in any of the age or sex groups studied. Across all people under 75, death rates were 26% higher in the North than in the South in 2024, after adjustment for age and sex.

The study examined deaths from all causes combined, rather than the specific causes of the divide. The researchers plan further analyses to investigate which causes of death are contributing to the differences.

The authors describe the persistence of the North–South health divide and its widening among working-age adults and women in early to mid-life as “major challenges for government”.

They call for sustained, coordinated action by central government and strategic regional authorities to tackle the social and economic drivers of excess mortality in the North. This includes:

• Giving regional strategic authorities sufficient powers to address the social and economic determinants of health.
• Targeting funding at areas of high deprivation to narrow health gaps.

Professor Iain Buchan, W.H. Duncan Professor of Public Health Systems and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Liverpool, Director of Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL), and Executive Director of Science and Technology at Liverpool Health Partners, said: “These findings are deeply concerning for England’s health, social fabric and economy. The more than tripling of the relative North–South mortality gap between 1981 and 2024 among 25–49-year-olds is the tip of the iceberg of rising regional inequalities in the health of working-age adults, which risk compounding economic divides and reinforcing a vicious circle of disadvantage in the North compared with the South of England.

“Policymakers need to consider radical steps to improve health, work and opportunity in the North of England, not only for public health but for the whole UK economy.”

Professor Evangelos Kontopantelis, Professor in Data Science and Health Services Research, University of Manchester, said: “By bringing previous analyses of the North–South mortality divide up to date, the study paints a picture of persistent regional inequalities and exposes a concerning trajectory for the North.

“It also provides robust evidence for the need for sustained policy action in the North that extends beyond healthcare and tackles the wider factors that shape health outcomes, such as deprivation, multimorbidity, poor housing and adverse employment conditions.”

Professor Benjamin Barr, Professor in Applied Public Health Research at the University of Liverpool, said: “Tackling the increasing health gap between the North and the South should be a top priority for government. Our research shows that the problem is getting worse, with northern excess mortality rising steeply among 25-49-year-olds, who make up a significant proportion of the working age population. There is both a moral imperative to tackle these regional disparities and a strong economic case for doing so.”

Dr Luke Munford, Co-Director of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester, Academic Co-Director at Health Equity North, and Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the University of Manchester, said: “Our study reveals a deepening of the North–South mortality gap, with worrying long-term trends among northern working-age adults and women in early to mid-life, which is particularly concerning given their role in shaping the health and life chances of the next generation.

“These are trends that government cannot ignore. They need to invest in health, specifically in areas that have poorer health outcomes, to build a healthier, more resilient society and a stronger economy.”

Hannah Davies, Chief Executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance and Executive Director of Health Equity North (HEN), said: “This paper adds to the evidence on health inequalities in the North. HEN’s separate research has also examined the economic consequences of poor health and the circumstances in which people leave work.

“Targeted action is needed in the hardest-hit communities, informed by robust research and combining prevention and healthcare with action on the wider social and economic determinants of health.”

• ‘The north–south divide in English mortality, 1981–2024: a longitudinal population study’, published in The Lancet Public Health, can be accessed here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(26)00195-7/fulltext

An Office of Health Economics report, published today, estimates that a fully funded UK Centre of Excellence for In-Silico Regulatory Science and Innovation (UK CEiRSI) could generate 37,282 additional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) within its first five years. A QALY is a measure that combines length and quality of life, representing a year lived in perfect health. The report values that health gain at around £2.4 billion, applying the Treasury's £70,000 valuation of a QALY and discounting future benefits.

Headquartered at The University of Manchester, UK CEiRSI's mission is to accelerate the use of in silico methods, which use computer modelling and simulations alongside, or in place of, laboratory experiments or tests involving animals or people, as a key evidence base for developing and regulating medicines and medical devices. UK CEiRSI is supported by the Office of Life Sciences, Innovate UK, the Medical Research Council, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

The analysis also estimates potential savings within the next five years of £1.2 billion for the NHS and £325 million globally for industry through research and development efficiencies and additional revenue. It projects a £21.9 billion contribution to the UK economy through investment, employment, and productivity gains. The authors caution that some of these quantified health and productivity benefits may overlap.

The report suggests that in silico methods could also reduce reliance on animal testing and improve access to treatments for groups often under-represented in clinical trials, including children and pregnant women.

UK CEiRSI’s work is referenced in the Government’s Replacing Animals in Science Strategy and aligns with their Life Sciences Sector Plan, AI for Science Strategy, and the 10-Year Health Plan for England.

To estimate the impact, researchers modelled how UK CEiRSI could enable 14 additional uses of medicines and medical devices by 2030, comprising two medicines and 12 devices. Over 15 years, that figure could rise to 77 new uses. The resulting health gains were valued at £14 billion. Separately, the report links £12.5 billion of new research and development investment to the creation of 267,000 jobs by 2040.

The analysis drew on published evidence and a survey of 46 experts from the medical device, pharmaceutical, and supporting sectors, with the headline figures based on OHE’s medium impact scenario.

Professor Alejandro Frangi, Executive Director of UK CEiRSI at The University of Manchester, said: “In silico technologies let us test ideas, treatments and devices using sophisticated computer models before, or alongside, conventional studies. UK CEiRSI is unlocking the potential of these methods and this report shows how the country stands to gain. More years of healthy life is a tantalising prospect and one that is now within our grasp. The economic benefits that we can offer will create and protect British jobs. We are helping to reduce animal testing in research by advancing the use of human-relevant evidence. We look forward to delivering this transformational agenda alongside the government, medical regulators, and businesses."

Professor Sarah Sharples, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester, said: “Computer modelling is an extremely beneficial component of delivering safe and effective technology. The report sets out an opportunity that the UK is well placed to take. The rules by which computer-based evidence is accepted in medicine and medical device regulation are being written now, and the countries that help write those rules will shape how these products are developed well beyond their own borders.

”UK CEiRSI, headquartered here and drawing on partners across the UK and beyond, demonstrates how a Manchester strategic approach brings this approach to life. It takes modelling, computing at scale, and validation to a standard that holds up under scrutiny — and people who can do all three. Manchester has this.”

Professor Ashley Blom, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester, said: “Every medicine and device that reaches a patient has been tested on somebody, and for decades that somebody has rarely been a child, rarely someone who is pregnant, and rarely someone from the communities our trials reach least well. Simulation changes who can be represented in the evidence, which makes this a matter of safety and of fairness at once. The report highlights these benefits and the potential for improved patient safety and enhanced product efficacy more generally."

A simple daily blood test could help critically ill sepsis patients come off antibiotics sooner, potentially reducing drug overuse and helping tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, new research shows.

The study, led by researchers at University of Manchester and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, and mainly funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), involved 2,760 patients in 41 intensive care units across the UK and is published in the journal Anaesthesia 

They found monitoring levels of a blood marker called procalcitonin (PCT) prompted doctors to consider stopping antibiotics significantly earlier than another commonly used marker, C-reactive protein (CRP).

The ADAPT-Sepsis trial examines how doctors respond to automated advice generated from daily blood tests designed to guide decisions on when antibiotic treatment could safely end.

The new data adds to the evidence already gathered through the ADAPT-Sepsis research programme. This process evaluation provides the final piece of the puzzle on whether the approach could be adopted across the NHS.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the body's overwhelming response to infection and is responsible for thousands of deaths every year.

Patients often receive prolonged courses of powerful antibiotics because doctors are understandably cautious about stopping treatment too soon in severely ill patients.

But unnecessary antibiotic use can fuel antimicrobial resistance, increase side effects and add to healthcare costs.

The researchers found that procalcitonin-based guidance generated "stop antibiotics" recommendations nearly two days earlier than guidance based on CRP – a significant reduction.

Though doctors were more likely to follow advice generated from CRP testing, the earlier signals produced by procalcitonin offer greater potential to cut the total amount of antibiotics patients receive.

CRP testing more closely reflects existing prescribing habits and tends to recommend continuing standard care.

More than 17,000 blood samples and pieces of treatment advice were analysed during the trial.

The most common reason doctors chose not to follow recommendations to stop antibiotics was existing microbiology guidance recommending fixed treatment durations.

Other reasons included concerns about ongoing severe illness, persistent fever and raised inflammation markers.

Principle researcher Professor Paul Dark, is Vice Dean for health and care partnerships at The University of Manchester and Professor of critical care medicine at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

He said: "For decades, intensive care doctors have faced an impossible balancing act.

“Nobody wants to stop antibiotics too early and risk a patient's life, but continuing them unnecessarily also carries real dangers for individuals and society.

“What our study shows is that simple biomarker tests can provide an additional layer of reassurance when making these difficult decisions.

“The challenge now is helping healthcare teams feel confident acting on that information so patients receive exactly the treatment they need, for exactly as long as they need it."

He added: “Blood-test-guided antibiotic stewardship could become an important tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance if implemented alongside existing clinical guidance and prescribing frameworks.

“These  findings provide new insight into how hospitals could safely reduce antibiotic exposure in some of the sickest patients in the NHS while helping preserve the effectiveness of life-saving drugs for future generations.”

Professor Rupert Pearse, Chair of the NIHR-HTA commissioning committee, said: "NIHR-funded research like the ADAPT-Sepsis trial plays a key role in tackling the threat posed globally by antimicrobial resistance.

"The study team's results help to provide vital evidence for medical professionals, giving them a greater understanding of how best to treat sepsis patients and, crucially, identify when it is safe for antibiotic treatment to be halted."

The trial is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM), the NIHR Manchester HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care and the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), in collaboration with The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. 

• The paper Delivery and adherence of biomarker-guided antibiotic treatment protocols in the ADAPT-Sepsis clinical trial: an in trial descriptive process evaluation of daily procalcitonin- and C-reactive protein-guided protocols is published in he journal Anaesthesia.  DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.70439

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a powerful paradigm for policy optimisation in sequential decision making, it is used to train an intelligent agent (policy) to make optimal decisions by maximising some long-term reward. While online RL learns a policy by actively interacting with an environment and collecting new data through exploration and exploitation, offline RL learns a policy from a fixed, pre-collected dataset without further interaction with the environment. A typical challenge in offline RL is distributional shift, where the learned policy may encounter scenarios not covered by the offline data. This paper tackles distributional shift and integration of labelled (with rewards) data and unlabelled (without rewards) data in offline RL.

The proposed method, called semi-pessimistic pseudo labelling (SPL), makes it possible to take advantage of the unlabelled data to find a better policy than would be possible only using the labelled data. This improves the reliability of decision-making by improving estimation and accounting for uncertainty while remaining computationally efficient. The authors provide theoretical guarantees for the method and demonstrate its effectiveness through simulations, standard reinforcement learning benchmarks, and an application to adaptive deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease. By making better use of available data, the approach has the potential to improve AI systems in healthcare and other high-stakes domains.

You can find the full ‘Semi-pessimistic Reinforcement Learning’ paper here.

Jin Zhu^1,2, Xin Zhou³, Jiaang Yao⁴, Gholamali Aminian⁵, Omar Rivasplata⁶, Simon Little⁴, Lexin Li³∗, Chengchun Shi¹∗
¹London School of Economics and Political Science, ²University of Birmingham, ³University of California at Berkeley, ⁴University of California at San Francesco, ⁵The Alan Turing Institute, ⁶University of Manchester. *Corresponding authors.

Professor Ashley Blom, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, will leave The University of Manchester next year to take up the role of Provost at the University of Melbourne.

During his time at Manchester, Ashley has made an important contribution to both the Faculty and the wider University. He has sharpened our approach to growing and diversifying research income, brought focus to how we attract, support and retain outstanding people, and provided thoughtful and determined leadership in addressing areas of challenge within the Faculty. As a highly valued member of the University Executive, he has also contributed insight and constructive challenge to the University’s strategy, strengthened engagement with philanthropists through Challenge Accepted, helped develop initiatives to improve the student experience and our NSS performance, and laid the groundwork for the renewal of the health estate through the integrated infrastructure plan.

Beyond the University, Ashley has worked closely with partners across Greater Manchester's health and care system. Through his roles with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Health Innovation Manchester, and his engagement with the NHS, civic and community partners, he has strengthened the Faculty's connections across the city-region and championed the contribution that research, education and innovation can make to better health outcomes.

Ashley is an orthopaedic surgeon and internationally recognised researcher in arthroplasty. Before joining Manchester, he was Vice-President and Head of the Faculty of Health at the University of Sheffield and, before that, Head of Bristol Medical School. He is an NIHR Senior Investigator, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a former President of the European Orthopaedic Research Society. His research has informed national guidance on joint replacement.

The University is extremely sorry to see Ashley leave, but we congratulate him on his appointment and wish him every success in this major new role. Interim leadership arrangements for the Faculty will be communicated in due course.

The University will begin the recruitment process for a new Vice-President and Dean immediately.

Professor Ashley Blom said: “This has been an exceptionally difficult decision. Manchester is a remarkable university, and I have enormous belief in the direction Duncan and colleagues have set through Manchester 2035. The University has developed a genuinely world-leading plan: ambitious about research and education, deeply rooted in its city and region, and focused on turning excellence into lasting public benefit.

“I am immensely grateful to colleagues, students and partners across the University and Greater Manchester for the openness, commitment and generosity they have shown me. It has been a privilege to work alongside them. Although the opportunity to become Provost at Melbourne is one I am honoured to take up, I will leave Manchester with real sadness and with every confidence in what the University will achieve between now and 2035.”

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester said: “I am sorry that Ashley will be leaving us, but I understand the opportunity he has been offered at a world-leading university and warmly congratulate him on his appointment. In a relatively short time at Manchester, he has made a significant contribution, sharpening our approach to research income, bringing open and collaborative leadership to the Faculty, responding with care and determination in tackling challenges, and strengthening our relationships across Greater Manchester’s health and care system.

“Ashley has been a valued colleague and member of the University Executive, and we will miss his judgement, generosity and commitment to Manchester. Melbourne is gaining an outstanding academic leader.

“We will communicate interim arrangements shortly and begin the recruitment of Ashley’s successor as soon as possible. In the meantime, I know colleagues will join me in thanking Ashley and wishing him and his family every success for the future.”

Professor Blom will take up the role in March 2027.

A new study led by researchers at The University of Manchester has provided the first plant-wide assessment of chemical looping reforming, an emerging hydrogen production technology that combines hydrogen generation with built-in carbon capture.

Published in Carbon Capture Science & Technology, the research, conducted in collaboration with industrial partners, evaluates how chemical looping reforming could operate in real-world industrial settings, from small, decentralised facilities serving industrial boilers to large-scale plants supplying refineries and industrial clusters.

Unlike conventional hydrogen production methods, chemical looping reforming is a process that inherently concentrates and separates CO₂ by means of solid oxygen-carrier materials that circulate oxygen through a sequence of reactions while producing heat. Then, this heat drives the transformation of methane and steam into a hydrogen-containing mixture, syngas.

The role of hydrogen for industrial decarbonisation

Hydrogen is expected to play a crucial role in reducing emissions from sectors that are challenging to electrify, including heavy industry, chemicals and refining. However, producing low-carbon hydrogen efficiently and affordably remains a significant challenge. Blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas with carbon dioxide captured and not released, can bridge the energy-transition gap by leveraging existing supply infrastructure while offering a more environmentally friendly alternative to reach decarbonisation targets.

The researchers used detailed reactor, process and plant-level modelling to assess chemical looping reforming across two representative scales, a 2 MW plant suitable for decentralised industrial applications and a 600 MW facility aligned with large industrial hydrogen demand. Running continuously, a 2 MW-plant could meet the electricity needs of ~5000 average homes, while a 600 MW-plant could supply about 1.5 million homes.

Dr Isabel Pazmino-Mayorga, lead author from the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, said:

Improving efficiency

The study found that the most advanced process designs could achieve thermal efficiencies of up to 75%, while capturing between 90% and 99% of carbon dioxide emissions. In several scenarios, the system also generated excess steam that could be exported for external use, further improving environmental performance.

The team compared chemical looping reforming with established low-carbon hydrogen production technologies, including steam methane reforming with carbon capture, autothermal reforming with carbon capture, and electrolyser-based hydrogen production. For large-scale hydrogen production, the researchers found that chemical looping reforming could outperform conventional reforming technologies in key measures of process efficiency while maintaining very high carbon capture rates. The system also demonstrated strong flexibility across scales, from regional industrial hubs to smaller distributed applications.

A key contribution of the work is its focus on practical deployment. Previous studies have often examined idealised process designs, whereas the Manchester-led team incorporated engineering constraints, including reactor operation, valve performance, heat integration requirements and safety considerations.

Professor Vincenzo Spallina, corresponding author and Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, said: 
"Over the past year, we have worked on technology development with industries to find cost-effective solutions, and the results of this work reinforce the role of chemical looping as a valid solution for syngas and hydrogen generation and its future deployment".

The researchers conclude that the best hydrogen production solution will depend on local energy systems, infrastructure and policy conditions. However, they suggest chemical looping reforming could become an attractive option during the transition to lower-carbon energy systems, particularly where industrial heat integration opportunities exist, and low-carbon electricity remains limited.

The work was delivered as part of RECYCLE, a £ 5.1 million collaborative project funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Meet the researcher

Isabel Pazmino Mayorga works on the development of novel technologies for decarbonisation through process intensification using modelling, simulation and techno-economic analysis in close collaboration with industrial partners.

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Water can break, mix, swirl and change direction in ways that are difficult to reproduce accurately on a computer. Yet engineers and researchers increasingly rely on computer simulations to understand these flows and design safer, more efficient systems.

I argue that if we want computer simulations to predict these difficult flows reliably, we need turbulence models that are suited to the way the water is represented in the simulation.

Turbulence is one of the biggest challenges in predicting fluid motion. Its irregular and constantly changing motion affects how water mixes, transports energy and interacts with its surroundings. Because resolving every turbulent motion directly would require enormous computational resources, researchers use turbulence models to represent some of these effects.

But I believe we should question a common assumption: that a turbulence model appropriate for one type of simulation will automatically be appropriate when the flow is represented using a different approach.

In grid-based computer simulations, the flow is represented by dividing the computational domain into many small cells, forming what is known as a computational grid. Imagine dividing a swimming pool into millions of tiny boxes and calculating what happens inside each one. Over many years, a wide range of turbulence models has been developed for these grid-based simulations.

There is another way to represent a flow: particle-based simulations. Instead of describing the flow using a grid, particle-based simulations represent the fluid using many particles that move, interact and carry information about the flow around them.

This approach has an important advantage. In flows where the shape of the fluid or the region occupied by the water changes significantly, managing a grid can become difficult. Particles can move naturally with the flow, allowing particle-based simulations to handle these changes without requiring the same grid adjustments.

But this method needs a turbulence model that is designed to account for its own characteristics, rather than simply using a model transferred from grid-based simulations. A model being well established for grid-based simulations does not necessarily mean that it is compatible with particle-based simulations. Using an established model may be convenient, but convenience should not be confused with compatibility.

The need for compatibility becomes even more important in complex flows. Turbulence behaves differently near solid boundaries than farther away, while flows with changing water surfaces introduce additional interactions and numerical challenges. A model that performs well in an idealised test may therefore not be equally reliable in the engineering and environmental situations for which these simulations are ultimately used.

These challenges are at the centre of my PhD research at The University of Manchester. Rather than simply applying an existing turbulence model to a particle-based simulation, I am investigating how turbulence modelling can be developed and evaluated specifically for particle-based simulations. My first year has focused on building the foundations through studying turbulence, particle-based simulations, existing research and numerical formulations, before moving towards the development of a new modelling approach.

The importance of these considerations becomes clearer when turbulence models are used for real-world decisions. As extreme flooding becomes an increasingly important engineering concern and investment grows in resilient infrastructure and offshore renewable energy, computational predictions can influence decisions with significant economic and societal consequences. For example, in an urban flood simulation, predictions of flow depth and velocity around buildings can influence the design of flood defences and evacuation planning, while uncertainties in turbulence modelling may affect these predicted flow characteristics. The more we rely on simulations, the more carefully we need to understand what lies behind their predictions.

This may sound like a specialised numerical problem, but it reflects a broader principle in computational science: models should be judged not only by the results they produce, but also by whether their assumptions are compatible with how the underlying system is represented.

My research therefore starts from a simple proposition: better modelling is not about more complexity; it is about the right model for the right method.

Meet the researcher

Jafar Gerdabi is a PhD researcher at The University of Manchester working on turbulence modelling within the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method for free-surface flows.

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The featured projects address issues that affect us all:

Dr Nimesh Dhungana: Putting communities at the heart of disaster recovery

Working alongside communities affected by earthquakes, floods and COVID-19 in Nepal, Dr Nimesh Dhungana co-developed a just recovery framework for more inclusive disaster recovery. The research has helped amplify community voices in policy discussions and informed advocacy and accountability initiatives across multiple countries.

Read more

Dr Wren Radford: Bringing creative reflection to everyday inequalities

Working with Poverty Truth, Dr Wren Radford used creative methods including poetry, reflection and workshops to explore lived experiences of everyday inequality. The project placed community voices at the centre of the research. Creating new insights into social change through the co-produced journal Filled to the Brim.

Read more

Dr Sophie Everest and Dr Andy Hardman: Understanding participation through filmmaking

Researchers worked with volunteers involved in a community gardening project at Platt Hall in Fallowfield to explore how people experience and participate in cultural spaces. Through co-produced films, the project used filmmaking as both a research method and evaluation tool, capturing how cultural participation shapes people's relationships with place and belonging.

Read more

While each project focuses on different challenges, disciplines and locations, they share a common principle that knowledge cannot be created in isolation. Humanities researchers work with communities as co-partners in the research process, creating opportunities for people to shape the questions being explored and contribute to the knowledge being produced.

This collaborative approach requires researchers to adapt and respond to the experiences, priorities and perspectives of the communities they work with. By doing so, research becomes more grounded in lived experience and better placed to drive meaningful change.

At its heart, the campaign explores how research creates impact in society. Through a focus on people and lived experience, humanities research helps ensure that knowledge serves a public purpose. Informing policy, shaping practice and strengthening communities.

Over the coming weeks, Ideas at Work will showcase stories from across the faculty that demonstrate the difference humanities research is making locally, nationally and internationally. Follow the campaign to discover how researchers and communities are working together to address some of the most pressing challenges facing society today.

Research team

Dr Wren Radford

Discipline

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

Department of Religions and Theology

Partners

Poverty Truth Community (Glasgow)

Poverty Truth Community (Greater Manchester)

The question: What happens when we bring creative reflection to everyday inequalities?

Inequalities are often separated by different categories, whether in policy and government, or in research areas. Housing as different from mental health. Food poverty as different from children’s wellbeing. Asylum and disability as different again.

This can mean that the complexity of people’s lives is reduced to an issue, rather than seeing how various inequalities show up in people’s daily experiences. Equally it can ignore what people have already been doing to navigate these concerns, care for their community, and create wider change.

These issues were at the forefront of The Embodied Everyday project that asked what would happen if the research project was based on people exploring their everyday experiences together, with space to support creativity and conversation.

The idea

Working with members of Poverty Truth groups in Greater Manchester and Glasgow, the project examined how issues such as poverty, housing, disability, racism and mental health are often treated separately, even though they are deeply connected in people's everyday lives.

The project began with four ‘steering group’ sessions, led by Dr Radford and participants from different Poverty Truth groups, to ensure the project was designed in collaboration with people taking part. The steering group considered what questions were important to shape the research and how people wanted to take part.

As this took place during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the steering group had to think carefully about access and energy levels. As well, the steering group considered whether responding to creative prompts in a group on a video call would be a good way to work together. In experimenting with these questions, the steering group tried out different approaches, before settling on sending people creative journalling packs with prompts, and inviting people to take part in online reflective group workshops.

Participants took part in reflective workshops and kept creative journals using writing, drawing, collage, photography and voice recordings. These humanities-based methods enabled people to express experiencesand understandings that might be difficult to capture through more traditional research approaches, resulting in the public-facing digital resource, Filled to the Brim. 
 

The creative reflective research

The research created opportunities for participants' experiences to inform wider conversations about inequality. For more than a decade, Poverty Truth Commissions across the UK have asked: ‘What if people who struggled against poverty were involved in making decisions about tackling poverty?’

The project started with weekly sessions of online reflective workshops, with people using their creative journal at times that suited them. They could write, draw, collage, use photographs, doodle, and also send voice notes. The project emphasised that creativity comes in lots of different forms and particularly thought about ‘everyday’ forms of creativity that are often overlooked, including cooking, playing, and imagining together if the world could be different.

The materials from the workshops and in the journals reflected how people make meaning in different ways in their lives, the responses were very specific to each individual but also showed the sense of community in listening to and supporting one another.

From research to impact

The project's creative reflection approach created space for everyday insights that are often overlooked in traditional research. Central to this work were long-standing humanities questions like ‘Whose knowledge?’ or ‘What kind of knowledge?’. By working collaboratively with participants, the research challenged assumptions about knowledge and power, encouraging audiences to reconsider how lived experience is recognised and understood.

Filled to the Brim notes that listening to lived experience is not a one-off event. It requires recognising the thoughtful work communities put in to reflect on and share their experiences, and not losing that context. As Filled to the Brim states:

“We can’t be summarised or understood completely in these pages. We keep living, changing, creating, reshaping our worlds. We encourage you to keep listening to and with people who are most impacted by inequalities in our society”

Through ongoing dialogue with participants, the project developed a creative output that reflected the richness and individuality of their experiences. Rather than categorising stories into predefined themes, the digital collection presents journal pages, workshop responses and creative works that capture the complexity of everyday life and the ingenuity people draw upon in response to inequality. The collection takes its name from a poem written by a participant.

Since its publication, Filled to the Brim has continued to extend the reach of the research, sparking conversations about how inequality is understood and addressed. It invites audiences to consider a different starting point: what becomes possible when we move beyond categorising experiences and instead centre people's knowledge, creativity and lived realities?

The difference it made

• Creating space for reflection and connection: Participants reported that combining creative journalling with small-group workshops helped them reflect on their own experiences while learning from people with different backgrounds and perspectives. The process created opportunities for personal reflection, connection and solidarity across diverse experiences of inequality.
• Changing research practice: The project demonstrated how collaborative research can move beyond extractive approaches that simply collect people's stories. Participants were involved in shaping the research and deciding on outputs, helping to establish a model of co-produced research that values community knowledge and creativity. Dr Radford has highlighted how steering groups and collaborative design processes have subsequently influenced their wider approach to research practice.
• Broadening public understanding of inequality: Filled to the Brim challenged narrow discussions of poverty by showing how housing, health, discrimination, care, belonging and everyday survival are interconnected. By sharing participants' creative reflections through a publicly accessible digital resource, the project has encouraged richer public conversations about inequality, lived experience and social change.

Research team

Dr Nimesh Dhungana

Discipline

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

Humanitarian Conflict and Response Institute

Partners

Accountability Lab, Nepal

The question: What happens when local voices shape global challenges?

Navigating disaster across the world can raise several questions, including whose voices should shape disaster governance. This research aims to make disaster governance more inclusive and accountable by strengthening the role of civil society in disaster recovery and how grassroots activism can influence disaster policy.

The idea

The research explored how people affected by disasters can have a stronger voice in decisions about recovery and rebuilding. Focusing on Nepal, the study looked at how communities, civil society activists and campaign groups responded to the 2015 earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2024 floods. Dr Dhungana has developed a longer-term research relationship to examine the barriers that prevent local people from influencing recovery efforts and has explored ways to improve accountability, participation and fairness in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. The thinking behind this? These policies and programmes will be more effective and equitable when approached from a rights-based perspective and shaped by the people most affected by them.

The close partnership built with activists and community organisations on the ground for many years allowed this research to be shaped from the inside rather than the outside looking in. The research used social science and humanities-based methods, including ethnographic observation, collaborative workshops and community discussions, to understand people's lived experiences of disaster and recovery. The findings helped create the Just Recovery framework, which puts human rights, social justice and local voices at the centre of rebuilding efforts, with lessons that can be applied beyond Nepal in countries including Liberia, Pakistan and South Africa.

Working alongside communities

The project brought researchers together with civil society organisations, policymakers and local communities affected by disasters in Nepal.

Key partners included Accountability Lab, a group supporting local changemakers within communities to develop creative ideas around governance issues, and its network of activists, who develop practical approaches to improving accountability in disaster recovery. Participants included community members with lived experience of the 2015 earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2024 floods, whose perspectives helped shape the research findings.

The project also engaged government officials and disaster management stakeholders, using workshops, policy discussions and public hearings to help ensure that evidence from communities could inform decision-making in recovery contexts.

From research to impact

Research and evidence gathering: The project worked with communities affected by earthquakes, floods and COVID-19 in Nepal to understand barriers to participation and accountability in disaster recovery.

Knowledge exchange and collaboration: Researchers, activists and practitioners co-produced evidence and developed the Just Recovery framework, sharing findings through workshops, community discussions and policy roundtables.

Supporting advocacy and practice: Accountability Lab and its partners used the research to strengthen their advocacy for more inclusive, rights-based approaches to disaster recovery and governance.

Influencing wider change: The findings informed discussions with policymakers and practitioners in Nepal, while lessons from the project are being shared through Accountability Lab's international network in Liberia, Pakistan and South Africa.

The difference it made

• Supporting young activists and civil society organisations: The research helped Accountability Lab identify evidence-based ways to improve citizen participation and accountability in disaster response and recovery. The findings are being used to strengthen advocacy efforts in Nepal and are informing Accountability Lab's work in Liberia, Pakistan and South Africa.
• Building networks: Through the co-production of research, the project strengthened the skills and connections of local researchers, activists and practitioners working on disaster governance and migration issues. It also helped Accountability Lab expand its relationships with government agencies and migrant rights groups.
• Giving communities a stronger voice: Public hearings in the districts of Banke and Kavrepalanchok brought together many voices, including migrants, local government representatives, NGOs and media organisations. These events created opportunities for community members to raise concerns and share their experiences through local media coverage.
• Influencing policy and public debate: The project promoted the Just Recovery approach, which places social justice, human rights and community participation at the centre of disaster recovery. Its findings have informed discussions among policymakers and are contributing to wider conversations about disaster risk reduction, climate justice and local democracy in Nepal and beyond.

Research team

Dr Sophie Everest
Dr Andy Hardman
Keiran Hanson
Dr Catalina Delgado Rojas

Discipline

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
Department of Drama and Film
Department of Art History and Cultural Practises

Partners

Platt Hall (Manchester Art Galleries)
Friends of Platt Fields
Manchester Urban Diggers
Platt Fields Market Garden

Including:

Liz Mitchell, Platt Hall Lead
Meg Parnell, Garden Project Lead
Mary Collins, garden volunteer and filmmaker
Rashid Mhar, garden volunteer and filmmaker
Helen Steyne, garden volunteer and filmmaker

The question: What happens when gardeners become filmmakers?

Since 2019, Platt Hall has been reimagining its role as a museum, working with locals to create a space designed with, rather than simply for, its community. Sophie Everest and Andy Hardman, researcher-filmmakers from The University of Manchester, have undertaken practice-based research across a range of museum and gallery contexts, embedding filmmaking within engagement, learning, curatorial and evaluation practices.

What began as a collaboration to document Platt Hall's transformation with Dr Everest and Dr Hardman developed into a project that asked: can filmmaking act as a more effective method of museological evaluation that does not just record, but shapes, change?

The idea

Participants were involved in filmmaking over an extended period, starting with observational filming of activities, long and short-form interviews and public screenings. The project then evolved into three films co-produced with volunteers from The Garden Project, following work to transform the Hall’s disused exterior into a green, community space.

What makes the co-production method distinctive is that film is not simply used to document outcomes. Filmmaking is a collaborative and socially engaged act, requiring participants to pause and evaluate at each stage of planning, directing, camera work, editing, reviewing, and screening.

This intentional, slow process creates repeated opportunities for participants to reflect on their perspectives, relationships, and sense of place, and capture how they change over time, even when these changes might exceed the written word. The result is an approach in which evaluation is more than a final reporting function, but an embedded part of the project itself, creating space for learnings to be identified and applied as the work develops.

The collaboration

Located at the crossroad of the South Manchester neighbourhoods of Rusholme, Fallowfield and Moss Side, Platt Hall was the Gallery of Costume until 2017. Since 2019, it has been undergoing a transformative redevelopment as part of the Platt Hall Inbetween project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

As part of this work, The Garden Project was launched in 2021. Manchester Urban Diggers (MUD) and Platt Fields Market Garden provided the start-up design, which has since been implemented by volunteers in partnership with Friends of Platt Fields. The result is a shared space that is enjoyed both by individuals and community groups, including Stay & Play families, Health & Wellbeing participants, local primary schools, and ESOL groups.

Working with Keiran Hanson, Lecturer in Film Practice at The University of Manchester, gardeners learned narrative techniques, how to direct the camera, and editing skills. The results were three co-produced films:

• A Tale of Healing, Inspiration & Biscuit Diversity in the Platt Hall Garden Project by Mary Collins: An exploration of Mary’s journey of growth whilst volunteering in the garden and how the project helped her reconnect with others amidst personal struggles.
• Compost by Rashid Mhar: A deep dive into the lifecycle of compost, from its beginning through to decomposition and renewal as vital garden sustenance. This lifecycle acts as a parallel to the transformation occurring at Platt Hall.
• The Pleasure of the Work by Helen Steyne: A fascinating catalogue of the before and after work completed on the garden, as well as the community who helped shape it.

All films can be watched here. This research was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

From research to impact

The research has two core strands that provided routes to impact:

1. For Platt Hall, the co-produced films supported its shift towards becoming a community-first institution by placing volunteers, neighbourhood groups, and other local voices at the centre of how the museum understands and presents its work.

2. For museological research and the wider heritage sector, the project is a proof-of-concept that demonstrates how filmmaking can be an effective method of capturing a broader range of reflections and learnings over time.

The difference it made

In their words

By the numbers

5 years of collaborative research. Over 50 screening attendees. 3 co-produced films: https://www.platthall.org/projects/thegardenproject

What next?

This project is just one part of an ongoing partnership between researchers and Platt Hall and the wider Manchester Art Galleries portfolio. Building on this work, future and wider research questions may include:

• How can collaborative filmmaking be embedded as a sustainable evaluation methodology within the wider cultural sector?
• What are the limits, risks and ethical challenges of using film as a method of evaluation and shared research within a consultative process of institutional change?
• What wider value does filmmaking hold as a method of documenting and generating the dynamic social relations between people, practice, collections and place that occur in museums and heritage spaces?

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

Published in the journal Physiotherapy, the study evaluated the Enhanced Rehabilitation Programme (ERP), a specialist multidisciplinary rehabilitation service established following the 2017 Manchester 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 Manchester, Manchester 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 Manchester 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 “training like an athlete”, 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 Jason Wong, 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.”

Professor Wong, who is also a Dermatology Theme researcher at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Manchester 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 Manchester Arena attack survivor who took part in the Enhanced Rehabilitation Programme at the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (MIHIP) over two years, said: “The 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.

“The programme helped me rebuild not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and showed me that recovery could mean more than simply coping — it could mean finding a way forward.”

• The programme was funded through the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund and Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups, with support from the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Manchester.
• The paper The enhanced rehabilitation programme for significant musculoskeletal injuries from the Manchester arena bombing – A process evaluation study investigating patients’ and physiotherapists’ experiences is published in Physiotherapy  DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2026.102371
• Image: view of the floral tribute in Manchester. Credit: Tomasz "odder" Kozlowski

Users can explore numbers of reported cases, examine patterns across different industries and locations, and gain insights into the changing nature of silicosis in the UK. New data will be added weekly, with fully cleaned datasets being incorporated every three months.

Improving access to high-quality occupational health surveillance data is an important step in supporting research, identifying emerging risks and helping organisations take preventative action to protect workers from harmful exposure to silica dust.

The dashboard forms part of THOR's ongoing work to improve understanding of work-related ill health and provide evidence that can support prevention, policy development and workplace interventions.

The UK Silicosis Dashboard is now available to explore online. View the UK Silicosis Dashboard

Caption: Photograph taken during launch ceremony: Seated (left to right): Dr Saeed Reza Mohandes (Principal Investigator, University of Manchester); Dr Stefan Kukula (Chief Executive, EEMUA). Standing (left to right): Dr Meini Su (Co-Investigator, University of Manchester); Professor Martie van Tongeren (Deputy Director, Thomas Ashton Institute); Nick Shaw (Hazards Forum); Matt Cleaver (Chair, EEMUA Council); Dave Bright (EEMUA Project Lead); Professor Clara Cheung (Co-Investigator, University of Manchester).

"Organisations rarely lack incident reports; what is often missing is a reliable way to recognise when a lesson from another sector applies to them, and to act on it before a similar event happens. By working alongside EEMUA, its members, regulators and safety professionals from the outset, we will build a strong evidence base and then co-design and pilot a framework and toolkit that turn incident data into contextualised, actionable learning across sectors."
Prof Martie van Tongeren, Deputy Director, Thomas Ashton Institute for Risk and Regulatory Research

"Most industries already investigate their incidents carefully, but those lessons rarely travel beyond the sector, or even the site, where they happened. Over the course of this initiative, we'll work with EEMUA members, regulators, and safety professionals to find out why, and co-design a framework and toolkit that are tested on real industry cases rather than on paper. We'd welcome organisations from any sector that want to help shape it."
Dr Saeed Reza Mohandes, Principal Investigator, The University of Manchester

Professor Stefano Bartolini, one of Europe’s most influential scholars of comparative politics and political theory, visited the University of Manchester to deliver his British Academy Lecture, titled ‘The Institutional Patrimony of the West.’

In his thought-provoking talk, Professor Bartolini drew on more than 1,500 years of history to ask the question: why have democratic institutions and systems of power-sharing emerged and endured in some societies, while proving more difficult to establish in others?

The lecture explored the long historical development of the institutions that underpin democracy in Western Europe where, rather than viewing democracy as a deliberate invention or the inevitable result of economic development, he argued that it emerged gradually through centuries of political competition, negotiation and compromise between different centres of power.

The British Academy

The event was part of the British Academy’s prestigious lecture programme, first established in 1908 and delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond. The lectures showcase leading scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, creating opportunities for public engagement with some of the most important questions facing society. The University of Manchester is proud to be a partner in this shared mission, helping to bring research in conversation with wider audiences.

A fresh perspective

Offering a fresh perspective on the historical foundations of democracy, the talk raised topical and important questions about the future of political institutions in an increasingly complex and contested world.

Following the talk, Professor Bartolini was joined in conversation by Manchester colleagues: Professor Dimitris Papadimitriou, Professor of Political Science and a Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Humanities, and Professor Olga Onuch, Professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics.

Their expertise in European politics, democratic engagement, political behaviour and identity provided a fascinating discussion, covering pressing topics such as the role in trust in sustaining institutional legitimacy, contemporary political challenges, and questions of pluralism and citizenship.

Watch the full recording here.