The MOU was formally signed at the National Art Centre, Tokyo (NACT) on May 23^rd.  It brings together three organisations with a shared ethos around the power of creativity and culture to support health and wellbeing, and with a research focus on the infrastructure, cross-sectoral partnerships and strategic support required for this work to flourish. Creative Health and Wellbeing is a key research theme for Creative Manchester, and we work closely with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and local partners in the delivery and evaluation of creative health across Greater Manchester. At Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA), the Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-Creation carries out collaborative research across the fields of art, welfare, healthcare, and technology. The team at TUA already work closely with the National Centre for Art Research, which strives to become a driving force in the sustained advancement of art, improve the social value of art, and work toward a future in which everyone can discover new values and potential through art.

The team in Japan have explored international approaches to creative health and social prescribing, including previous study visits to Greater Manchester, whilst developing the concept of cultural prescribing, which aims to create connections between people through culture and move towards a more inclusive society, ‘where everyone has a space to belong, a role to fulfil, and the chance to lead a full, healthy, and meaningful life on their own terms.’  Find out more about cultural prescribing here - First Steps in Cultural Prescribing, Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-creation

Given the similarities between creative health and cultural prescribing, there are many opportunities to learn from each other as we strive to demonstrate and articulate the value of fully integrating creativity and culture into our health and social care systems.

Whilst in Japan for the signing ceremony we were invited to speak at the NCAR Co-creation forum ‘Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums – Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan’ at the National Art Centre, Tokyo, and the International Social Prescribing Conference at Kyoto University. At both events we encountered enthusiasm for this work across the creative and cultural sectors, but also from healthcare, local authorities and policymakers keen to develop innovative approaches to social issues.

Creative Health and Cultural Prescribing in Japan

During the trip we were introduced to varied examples of creative health and cultural prescribing in practice in Japan, and we began to build a picture of the infrastructure supporting this work, along with ideas for future collaboration.

Creative Ageing

A key driver of cultural prescribing in Japan is the super-ageing population. With over 30% of the population over 65, this brings challenges for health and social care systems and local authorities. Although average life expectancy is among the highest in the world, healthy life expectancy is on average ten years less, and many older people live with long term conditions. For example, one in five over 65s live with dementia.

Zuttobi is a joint project between Tokyo University of the Arts and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum based in Ueno, Tokyo, developed in collaboration with nearby healthcare and social welfare institutions. Clinicians, curators and researchers worked together to design a creative ageing programme that could promote wellbeing and social connection through the museum collections, and that was fully accessible to people living with dementia and their carers.

 A further programme, Uenobi, has been newly launched based on the cross-sectoral collaboration fostered by Zuttobi to include other assets in the Ueno district, including the Zoo and local and national museums of Japan, establishing a cultural prescribing network. The team have published a handbook to support implementation and through the Art-Based Communication Platform for Co-Creation are exploring how the model could be replicated in other parts of the country.

At prefectural level, local government funded-cultural institutions are supporting residents to age well in their communities. During our visit we were introduced to the work of Kanagawa Arts Theatre, which, among of range of activities designed to promote inclusion, runs popular theatre and dance programmes specifically for older residents, including the internationally recognised Challenge of the Silver.  Similarly, Saitama Arts Theatre runs a Dance for Parkinsons programme, working closely with the local public health office, and has expanded its long-standing Saitama Gold Theatre programme for older adults to an experimental programme, Company Grande, designed to be fully inclusive of residents of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Fostering connection

Alongside a rapidly ageing population, loneliness and isolation is a priority area for Japanese policymakers. Whilst this can be linked to older age, particularly in rural areas where younger people are moving away to larger cities for work, it is an issue affecting people of all ages. Latest statistics gathered as part of a national strategy to address loneliness and isolation found that 40% of the population report feeling lonely.

Many of the projects we heard about were therefore focused on community-building, connection and providing a sense of meaning and purpose. Examples included initiatives such as community allotments, communal studio spaces, neighbourhood festivals and community arts groups. A more unusual example was Tokyo University of the Arts’ Goat’s Eye project, which aimed to build links between residents and the student population through the care of community goats at Toride campus, north of central Tokyo. As well as providing a focus for shared activity, the project has sparked several new creative initiatives, including a calligraphy club (using goat hair to make the calligraphy brushes) pottery club (using goat droppings to produce a glaze) and a culinary club, where residents explore recipes based on the wildflowers and crops consumed by the goats.

Museums and galleries supporting health and wellbeing  

Similar to the Whitworth Art Gallery, and Manchester Museum, museums and galleries are recognising their potential to support wellbeing and rethinking their relationships with their local communities, working to ensure their programmes and offers are inclusive and accessible to all. In Fukushima, to the north of Tokyo, the prefectural museum has played a vital role in supporting those affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear incident. The museum has been central to capturing the way of life and preserving the memories of communities evacuated as a result of the nuclear incident. The relationships formed through this process have informed new ways of working with residents that link local heritage, nature and wellbeing.

Common goals and next steps

Whilst in our brief trip we were only able to scratch the surface of the wealth of creative health activity taking place, we identified some themes that were common to both Japan and the UK. In particular, creative programmes targeting older adults, creative activity to promote and support mental health and wellbeing and creative and cultural assets as central to community-building and placemaking. We could also observe similar challenges related to the development of a sustainable infrastructure for creative health, including the need to build cross-sectoral partnerships and work across different policy domains, and to articulate the evidence and value of this way of working.

Building on UoM’s existing research evaluating the integration of creative health into systems, and TUA’s focus on joined-up system design, the MOU provides an excellent opportunity for comparative policy research. We can also look across the University’s cultural institutions, and our partners in the wider Greater Manchester creative health ecosystem to identify where we might co-create programmes and interventions with our counterparts in Tokyo and develop new approaches to design, implementation and evaluation. For example, CreaTech (the combination of creativity and technology) is an area with significant potential for collaboration as a growing element of Greater Manchester’s Creative Industries, a key theme of Creative Manchester and a specialism of Tokyo University of the Arts.

We look forward to fostering new links between researchers in both universities to build an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and international creative health collaborative, evidencing the value of creativity and culture for health and wellbeing.

The Nicholl Fellowships, established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, seeks to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters from across the globe. Partner institutions may recommend up to two screenwriters per year to submit a feature screenplay to the Nicholl Fellowships.

At the University of Manchester recommendations will be made by Gonzalo Maza and Jonathan Hourigan, screenwriters and lecturers in the Centre for New Writing. Gonzalo is the co-writer of Una mujer fantástica (A fantastic woman), winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2018. Maza, a member of the Academy, said:

If you would like to be considered, view more details about how to apply.

Hourigan notes that “We're confident of receiving some strong submissions from our MA Screenwriters but in this, the first year of our partnership, deadlines are tight and the criteria strict, so do read the guidelines and criteria carefully.”

Up to five US$35,000 Nicholl Fellowships are awarded annually. Fellows receive ongoing mentoring from Academy members and networking opportunities from the Academy.

Nicholl Fellows participate in pitch workshops, media training sessions, meet-and-greets and more. They also receive ongoing career advancement support through the Gold Alumni Network Program, which provides continued access, opportunity, professional development and education for alumni of the Academy’s global talent development programs.

All Nicholl Fellows' screenplays are archived in the Academy Collection and are accessible through the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library.

The program was endowed by Gladys “Gee” Nicholl in honour of her husband, writer-producer Don Nicholl. The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program has awarded 191 fellowships since 1986.

For more information, visit the Nicholl Fellowships website.

Running from 2025 to 2027, Tuning into Opera is exploring four research themes:

• Opera in Greater Manchester: History, perceptions and visibility
• Place-making and storytelling: Reflecting local identity through opera
• Inclusion and accessibility: Breaking down barriers and opening doors
• Innovation and technology: Imagining the future of opera-making

The project takes a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys, interviews, workshops and creative collaborations. So far, this has included public surveys exploring perceptions of opera and career accessibility, artist and researcher roundtables and stakeholder interviews across the region’s cultural sector. Together, these activities are helping to build a nuanced understanding of opera’s current position in Greater Manchester and its future potential. At its core, this is a project about listening: listening to audiences, to those who feel excluded from opera, and to those already reimagining what it can be.

The project’s themes came into particularly sharp focus at a recent public workshop: Future of Opera: Human–AI Improvisation, held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in May. The event formed part of both Tuning into Opera and the OperAI: Future of Opera series and explored how digital technologies might reshape opera as a more participatory artform.

Opera meets AI: experimentation and participation

The workshop featured a live demonstration of scenes from an immersive sci‑fi opera developed by Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Bicentenary Fellow in Music at the University of Manchester and Operactive Arts.

Audience members were not passive observers. Asked to become Yōkai – playful spirits influencing events – they used their smartphones to submit emoji-based emotional responses and vote on key narrative decisions. This input was aggregated through an ‘emotion engine’, which shaped the performance in real time, affecting scenography, timbre shifts and even the fate of characters within the story. For performers, this created a responsive and partially improvised environment, where they adapted not only to each other, but to audience input mediated through AI.

In conversation: AI, creativity and the future of opera

The performance was followed by a panel discussion to reflect on the broader implications of AI for opera. The conversation featured Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Bob Holland, Executive Producer at English National Opera, Dr Jennifer Cearns, Lecturer in AI at The University of Manchester, and Cliona Cassidy, one of the event’s performers, a soprano, composer and experimental vocalist. It was chaired by Lauren Monaghan-Pisano, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at ENO.

Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina framed the workshop’s performance as a cultural intervention: opera was used as a medium through which to explore and communicate the role of AI in society. She emphasised that this is particularly important given that public discourse often positions AI as inherently threatening. By embedding AI within an artistic context, she suggested, we can create a platform for more nuanced and imaginative engagement.

Another key theme was the move from linear narrative structures to interactive ‘storyworlds’, which Alexandra likened to gaming environments. The panel reflected on how this approach can reposition opera as an immersive and participatory experience, where meaning is co-produced rather than delivered. They noted that such an approach opens up new possibilities for audience engagement, while also prompting important questions about how creative control is balanced and how authorship is remunerated within more collaborative forms.

The discussion also touched on the practicalities of integrating AI into live performance. The use of mobile phones, for example, enables real-time interaction and participation, while also introducing considerations around audience focus.

The panel also reflected on the wider implications of applying technologies such as emotion recognition and data aggregation in live performance contexts. In particular, they reflected on how audience responses – such as emoji inputs – are translated into collective datasets that shape the performance, raising questions about how individual emotions are represented within aggregated data. The discussion also looked ahead to more advanced forms of audience sensing, including biometric tracking and facial recognition, highlighting the importance of consent and critical reflection when incorporating these technologies into live cultural experiences.

Questions of access and inclusion – central to Tuning into Opera – also formed an important part of the discussion. AI and digital technologies can be seen as offering new pathways into opera, particularly for younger audiences and those with limited prior exposure. At the same time, the panel recognised that not all audiences will have equal access to or feel comfortable with digital participation.

Continuing the conversation

As Tuning into Opera moves forward, these questions will remain central to the initiative’s research and engagement work. Over the coming year, Tuning into Opera will continue to develop workshops, consultations and collaborations across Greater Manchester, working with communities and partners to explore how opera can become more inclusive, responsive and relevant.

The Human–AI Improvisation workshop offered one possible vision of opera’s future. More importantly, it demonstrated the value of bringing research, creative practice and public engagement into dialogue.

If you are interested in being part of this conversation, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch by emailing tuningintoopera@eno.org.

About the Author

Dr Kamila Rymajdo is a writer and academic. She is an Honorary Research Fellow within the Music Department at University of Manchester and works as a Research Associate for English National Opera. She is also Leader in Residence at the University of Lancashire for her contribution to music journalism. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at University of Lodz.

About ENO

English National Opera are the national opera company dedicated to creating extraordinary encounters with opera, on stage and beyond. Founded in 1931 as Sadler’s Wells Opera to make opera accessible to all, we continue that mission today by presenting opera that’s different, creatively daring and inclusive. From performances at the London Coliseum and in Greater Manchester, to work in schools, communities and public spaces across the country, we are committed to reaching and reflecting the full diversity of our nation.

About Creative Manchester

Creative Manchester is an interdisciplinary platform based at The University of Manchester. The platform champions research in creativity and creative practice, bringing together research communities with external stakeholders to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities. Please visit the Creative Manchester website for more information.

We started with Paul Hines, CEO of Made by Mortals,  who invited attendees to share their own ideas around creative health and participation. He introduced the audience to Made by Mortals’ work, which is centred around facilitating creative projects with drawn from lived experience of healthcare.  He also shared more about The University of Manchester’s work with Made by Mortals, exploring participatory arts for health in research.

Rod Kippen, from 42^nd Street, then shared the charity’s work, particularly through The Horsfall, a creative space and art gallery attached to their mental health provision for young people.  He explored some of the problems that artistic spaces have when connecting with young people and showed some fantastic projects and artwork created by young people at The Horsfall.

In our final talk, Dr Hannah Waterson, gave us an overview of her research trip to Japan as part of a delegation sent to Tokyo to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Creative Manchester, Tokyo University of the Arts and The National Center for Art Research, Japan. She had the opportunity to visit a wide variety of Creative Health projects during her time in Japan and shared with us some highlights including visiting community goats, who have inspired some more unusual creative projects using their hair and even their droppings!

We ended the day with a Happy Place workshop led by Cartwheel Arts; participants were welcomed to create a collage to create a visual representation of their happy place.

During the breaks we showcased Creative Health work from across the University of Manchester, which included artwork from “Hulme Nannas' exhibition of (in)visibility, community and urban change”, “Brave Spaces: Visualising Support for Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse in Faith Communities” and “Air Space”.

Find out more about Creative Manchester’s Creativity, Health and Wellbeing research theme.

Lost & Found in Translation (L&FIT) is a collaborative network of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) initially based across the four North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) institutions. The network brings together researchers whose work involves qualitative interviews conducted across diverse languages, settings and disciplines.

The initiative was founded by Dr Ruth Abou Rached, Lecturer in Arabic Cultural Studies (and scholar of Translation Studies) at the University of Manchester. Recognising that many PhD researchers were engaging with issues of translation often outside of Translation Studies, she identified a gap: cross-language research practices vary significantly across disciplines, yet opportunities for shared reflection were limited.

L&FIT began as a small group of scholars from across the NWSSDTP which includes Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, Lancaster and Keele Universities. These researchers initially came together to deliver a workshop at the Methods@Manchester 2025 Methods Fair. What followed was not a one-off event, but an ongoing conversation that continued well beyond the Fair itself.

Building on this momentum, the group secured a Methods North West Catalyst Grant in summer 2025. This funding supported a programme of three workshops (February, April and May 2026) and a conference in June 2026. From the outset, the diversity of the network was striking, with participants drawn from disciplines including Biology, Human Geography, Business, Politics, Literature, IT and Translation Studies. Guest speakers from the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies supported the network by sharing their own expertise while signposting the group to the latest translation research publications.

By the second workshop, the network had already expanded beyond the NWSSDTP region, welcoming contributors from institutions in China and Morocco, alongside a visiting scholar from the United States. The third workshop deepened these conversations further, focusing on the role of the researcher within the research process, and on how to ethically represent the communities involved in cross-language research.

The L&FIT Conference

The conference programme reflected the breadth and ambition of the network. Originally planned as a one-day event, it expanded into a two-day format - including an online component - to enable wider participation.

Topics ranged from AI algorithms and idioms, speech recognition and sign language, to research in conflict zones and the emotional complexity of interviews that extend beyond words. Participants also critically examined broader structural challenges, including how the ‘big social sciences’ engage with cross-language production, interpreters being seen as a problem, not a help,  when ‘money talks’ in different languages; academia ‘stuck’ in English.

A practising translator described the event as “diversified, well-structured and highly relevant to the current state of the Translation field”, highlighting the way it opened up new perspectives on both the challenges and possibilities of working across languages.

For those involved in organising the conference, the experience was equally significant. One Year 3 PGR reflected on the “professionalism and attention to detail demonstrated at every stage”, describing it as “the best experience I have had across no fewer than ten conferences and workshops this year.”

Why has L&FIT resonated so strongly?

Reflecting on the network’s success, Dr Abou Rached describes L&FIT as “academic community development in action”. Its impact, she suggests, stems from a combination of open collaboration, institutional support, and a shared recognition that translation is a vital component of academic research practice. Together, these elements have created “rich potential to become a sustainable hub of knowledge-sharing in the methods area and beyond.”

This sense of community is echoed by participants. One doctoral researcher noted that involvement in the network had encouraged greater reflexivity in their work, particularly in “keeping grassroots voices at the centre of research”. Another highlighted the personal significance of these connections, explaining that the network “made me feel less alone… and part of a community.”

Where next?

What began as a group of ten researchers across five North West universities has grown into an international network of around 50 scholars. Participants now span regions including North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt), the Gulf (Qatar), China and beyond.

The network’s momentum has attracted strong support from the wider academic community. A guest speaker praised its success in “bringing together such a diversity of disciplinary perspectives” and emphasised the importance of sustaining this energy into 2026–27.

For many involved, the value of L&FIT lies not only in intellectual exchange but in the sense of belonging it fosters. As one Year 2 PGR reflected, being part of the network has been “truly inspiring” and has “renewed my enthusiasm for translation studies” another valued “how researchers from a wide range of fields are all, in different ways, contributing to language and cultural accessibility.”

Looking ahead, the network plans to first extend these conversations through a dedicated blog, continuing to create space for dialogue, reflection and future collaborations.

Where can I find out more?

You can read more about the workshops and conference here, and while L&FIT does not yet have a LinkedIn page, you can explore posts from the conference, panel by panel, and post by post, here!

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tokyo University of the Arts and The National Center for Art Research, Japan.

On Saturday, 23 May 2026 at The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT), Japan, Prof John McAuliffe, Associate Vice President (Cultural Portfolio), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of Creative Manchester, at The University of Manchester. 

This landmark agreement commits the University to collaborate in a three-way partnership with the “Arts-Based Communication Platform for Co-creation to Build a Convivial Society" at Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA) — commonly known as the ART-based Platform for Co-creation — and the National Center for Art Research (NCAR), part of the National Museum of Art, Japan.

As part of this MoU, the three partners (UoM, the ART-based Platform for Co-creation, and NCAR), will work collaboratively with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) GM Place Partnership, to strengthen international research collaborations

The formal signing ceremony took place following the NCAR Co-Creation Forum Vol.2: Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums ―Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan.

Prof John McAuliffe, Associate Vice President (Cultural Portfolio), Prof Sook-Kyung Lee, Director of The Whitworth, Dr Hannah Waterson, Research Associate – Knowledge Mobilisation and Julie McCarthy, Strategic Lead for Creative Health at the GMCA presented as part of the event exploring Creative Health initiatives from Manchester.

The event drew 150 guests to The National Art Center, Tokyo, and  over 700 registered for the online event. The afternoon focused on knowledge exchange around Creative Health and Social Prescribing, along with discussion around future collaboration and shared research opportunities.  

Colleagues were also invited to speak at the Kyoto University International Social Prescribing Conference (ISPC 2026), alongside academics from TUA and NCAR. The conference brought together people from across the world interested in social prescribing and non-medical approaches to health and wellbeing. The University of Manchester and GMCA, joined Tokyo University of the Arts and NCAR for a joint session at the conference, exploring differences and similarities in the UK and Japan. They discussed supporting community-based groups to deliver the work and the role of museums and galleries. 

Image Credit: Yumi Saito

Unity Is Strength is a programme with themes of home, diversity, cooperation, strength and unity.  Unity Is Strength was a vehicle for a diverse group of women to communicate to the arts and culture sector the types of engaged practice that best meet community needs and creative aspirations.

During 2025-2026, Ruth Flanagan has been a Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP), working alongside TheUniversity of Manchester researchers through Creative Manchester and the School of Arts Languages and Cultures to introduce a research framework to her work finding connections in diverse communities through craft traditions.

The Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Awards, are part of the Creative Communities programme and funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). 

The Unity Is Strength banner consciously echoed the historic banners of progressive organisations, including the Co-operative Women's Guild. The project was grounded in Rochdale's identity as a progressive town, the birthplace of the co-operative movement and as a home for diverse communities. 

The banner's imagery was visualised and created by participants: motifs drawn from Rochdale's 19th century Town Hall sit alongside the Red Rose of Lancashire, Afghan pomegranates, Romany Vardo roses, and symbols representing Jamaica and Barbados as a visual representation of the group's collective identities. The project culminated in an April launch event at the town hall, featuring a Citizens' Jury in which participants reflected on the project's themes and how the shared practice of embroidery had crossed cultural boundaries.  

Zulfar, originally from Afghanistan and now settled in Rochdale, spoke at the unveiling:

"I dedicate this banner to Rochdale. This project has been grounding and energising for me. We shared love and friendship, and patience while learning new skills. I chose to embroider a pomegranate, which in my culture symbolises abundance and happiness. For me, the banner also reflects a wish for peace for people all over the world."

Find out more about the project on the Cartwheel Arts Website

Decades on, observing some Manchester students, it doesn’t seem like we’ve made much progress. The assumption existed then, and seems to exist today, that just because students are surrounded by people from different countries, they’ll implicitly learn how to manage exchanges, they’ll ‘figure it out’. There is little indication, though, that this is the case.

Communicating across languages and cultures is complex. It involves awareness, understanding, adaptability, a willingness and confidence to step out of our comfort zones.        

This matters because what could be a strength, can easily become a silent barrier to learning and participation. In my experience the challenges of communication often become most pronounced during groupwork, especially where there is a shared, assessed outcome.

To gain a better understanding of these communication difficulties and how we can support students to overcome them, my colleague Rachel Heasley and I worked closely with students and academics in FSE.

We observed and analysed how groups of students, who didn’t know each other, communicated when completing a task. Through student consultations we then explored our observations.

A few themes emerged:

• some students speak less, not because they lack ideas, but because they’re shy or worried about being misunderstood because of their language skills
• others take over unintentionally because silence is interpreted as agreement or disinterest
• cultural norms influence the language students choose to disagree, question or express uncertainty.

What is clear, though, is there’s a willingness to make it work. Students just don’t know how to with confidence. For most, this needs to be explicitly taught. Without it, students likely default to what feels safest – talking only with familiar peers.

With that knowledge, we created two targeted interventions: a 120-minute workshop and a 60-minute self-directed resource.

Both feature videos of Manchester students sharing real-life stories – honest reflections of the awkward moments and the breakthroughs. They’re accompanied by interactive and reflective tasks, which guide students to think about their own communication styles, assumptions and strategies and reach a shared understanding of how to communicate in groups.

In semester one, we piloted these with two year-one undergraduate courses in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Department of Materials, each cohort comprising roughly 140 students.

The timing was deliberate. We didn’t want to wait until students were struggling, we wanted to address it head on, aiming to normalise the idea that communication is a skill to be worked on, it’s not something you ‘have’ or don’t. Exposing students to this early in their academic studies gives them time to hone their skills before completing higher stake group assessments in years two and three.

Student response was overwhelmingly positive with over 90% of students reporting that they would recommend the workshop or self-study resource to another student. There was a notable shift post workshop in both students’ preparedness and confidence levels, with the percentage more than doubling.

Following up with students a month on, one student shared:

Another described beginning to find their voice:

Academics noticed the difference too. Compared with previous cohorts, they reported students participating more equally and taking greater responsibility for group dynamics. They also observed a shift in tone with clearer, more respectful communication, and a greater appreciation of the challenges others might be facing. With less time spent managing group conflict and troubleshooting communication breakdowns, the ‘wins’ were obvious.

Moving forward, if we want students to communicate confidently, we need to create the conditions for that to happen. That means moving beyond assumptions, recognising that diversity alone doesn’t guarantee meaningful interaction, and it means equipping students – all students – with the skills they need to navigate difference, not avoid it.

Further Reading:

• exploring the self-directed resource
• connect ruth.fordham@manchester.ac.uk   rachel.heasley@manchester.ac.uk

Acknowledgements:  Thanks to Dr Katherine Harrison and Dr Barbara Waters for collaborating on the pilot and their year one undergraduate students on EARTH11300 and MATS11701 for taking part and providing valuable reflections.

Andrew Melchior is a British-German creative technologist with over 25 years at the intersection of music, technology, and art. As CTO of Massive Attack and founder of Genotone Ltd, he has spent his career building the infrastructure that connects creative practice to emerging technology, from pioneering work on one of the world's first artist websites with David Bowie in 1999 to encoding Massive Attack's Mezzanine into synthetic DNA with ETH Zürich. 

Andrew advises the UK government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Working Groups on AI and copyright, representing coalitions of over 30,000 artists through the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition, and AFEM. He is a leading voice on artist provenance, AI transparency, and the future of creative rights in the age of generative AI. 

At the heart of the visit was the major public lecture Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship, which took place at the heart of the Innovation District at SISTER. 

In this special lecture and discussion, Andrew Melchior presented a compelling case for strengthening creative authorship in the era of generative AI. 

Drawing on his experience advising UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright, Melchior explored how large-scale AI systems trained on vast datasets of copyrighted material, often without consent or compensation are disrupting established frameworks for protecting creative work. He argued that the challenge facing artists today is not only legal but infrastructural: without reliable systems to verify authorship and trace creative lineage, existing rights regimes cannot be effectively enforced. 

Following the lecture, he was joined in conversation by John McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International, and responded to audience questions. 

Earlier in the day, Melchior lead an interactive masterclass for undergraduate and postgraduate music and composition students. 

The session focussed on practical workflows for producing and releasing music while maintaining provenance and control of intellectual property in a rapidly evolving AI landscape. Students engaged directly with Melchior and explored the real-world implications of emerging technologies on their creative practice. 

The visit also included a roundtable discussion bringing together academic experts and policymakers. They examined the relationship between music, culture, technology, and Manchester’s creative heritage; the impact of AI and other technologies on the creative industries and mechanisms to protect the rights and livelihoods of creative practitioners. 

This visit was part of Creative Manchester’s ongoing commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and critical debate at the intersection of culture, technology, and society.

My name is Callum, and I am a master's student studying Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Manchester. Since December 2025, I have been on placement with Creative Manchester, where I have supported and learned about the wide range of activities the platform undertakes. This has included gaining insight into how Creative Manchester operates as a research platform within the University, and how this work translates into exhibitions and public events.

My decision to return to university was driven by a strong interest in how creative practice and the arts can contribute to health and community regeneration and particularly how communities can work collaboratively to create meaningful change. I have worked in different organisations around Community Collaboration and wanted an insight into what the University does to engage with the community and different engagement approaches. When the opportunity to apply for a placement with Creative Manchester arose, I recognised it as an ideal way to explore how academic research and cross-sector collaboration can influence community development both within the University and across the wider region. The organisation’s strong network of community and arts partners made the placement feel like a perfect fit.

During my time at Creative Manchester, my role focused on supporting the delivery of events and exhibitions developed through both internal research and external partnerships. I contributed to audience engagement evaluation, assisted with social media promotion in the lead-up to events, and supported the organisation of activities from early planning stages, such as researching venues, coordinating catering, and drafting event briefs, through to acting as an ambassador on the day.

Two particularly memorable projects that demonstrate the depth and impact of Creative Manchester’s work were the International Women’s Day event held in collaboration with MACFEST (Muslim Arts and Culture Festival) and the Hulme Nannas' exhibition of (in)visibility, community and urban change.

The Hulme Nannas' exhibition of (in)visibility, community and urban change was a community-focused project involving women over the age of 50 living near the University. Created by author and artist Anthea Cribbin, and led by researchers Tina Cribbin and Niamh Kavanagh, the exhibition explored The University of Manchester's position within Hulme, an area historically marked by deprivation but now undergoing significant regeneration and gentrification. The project provided a platform for local residents to share their perspectives, raising important questions around place-making, identity, and community voice during periods of substantial change.

International Women’s Day 2026 ripple effect: Co-researching work, precarity and contribution in later life, was the largest event during my placement and highlighted Creative Manchester’s commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. Thoughtful considerations, such as providing takeaway food options during Ramadan, helped ensure all attendees could fully participate. The event featured a panel discussion on inequalities in employment for women over 50 in Manchester, from the project Uncertain Futures, alongside contributions from local residents involved in the research. Performances from artists within Muslim and Turkish communities added a celebratory dimension, showcasing the strength of collaboration between the University and its wider community. It was a diverse, inclusive, and genuinely collaborative event, and a great example of Creative Manchester at its best.

These examples are just two of the activities I was able to get involved in during my time at Creative Manchester. There where lots of other events that took place from AI in Music through to Creative Inspiration from Plants, Memorial Launches and research symposiums. Alongside this, I supported a diverse range of exhibitions from Moss Worlds, through to Biblical Women. The diversity of activities that took place where really interesting and showed different approaches delivery, teaching me a great deal

This placement has helped me develop both my confidence and my commitment to working collaboratively with communities to address challenges around health, equality, and access to the creative industries. I have gained valuable insight into how meaningful partnerships can bridge the gap between academic research and real-world impact. The work undertaken by Creative Manchester is vital in fostering these connections, and it has provided me with approaches and perspectives that I will carry forward in my future work.

I am extremely grateful for my time at Creative Manchester. The team were welcoming, supportive, and deeply passionate about their work. I would strongly encourage anyone who has not yet attended one of their events to do so, they cover a wide range of topics and are consistently engaging and inspiring. The exhibitions in the Samuel Alexander Building’s glass corridor are also not to be missed; having worked with the team, I now appreciate the care and effort that goes into curating and regularly updating this space.

For anyone considering a placement that offers genuine insight into community engagement, academic collaboration, and creative approaches to complex social challenges, Creative Manchester is an opportunity not to overlook. It has been an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience, and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the entire team for hosting me.

Find out more about Student and Graduate opportunities with Creative Manchester.

Dr Alberto Esu, Lecturer in Classical Greek History in the Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology Department at the University of Manchester, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to participate in research activities for the Phyle Project: Revitalizing Democracy in Theory and Practice. The project explores the history of civic offices in ancient Greek democracies and their relevance to contemporary republican and democratic theory.

One of only 12 fellows worldwide, Dr Esu was awarded the fellowship of 24,000 USD through nomination and competitive selection by an international committee of senior scholars. The fellowship is funded by the International Balzan Prize, which was awarded to Professor Josiah Ober for his leading contribution to the history of Athenian democracy.

As an award-holder, Alberto will support the research activities of the Phyle Project over the next three years until 2028, including participating in a workshop at Stanford University and a final conference in Athens. His studies will explore how Greek democracies structured civic offices, arguing that institutional design—especially limited and well-defined authority—was central to democratic resilience.

Reflecting on the award, Alberto said:

Find out more about the project.

The event was the first in a series of workshops exploring the how MSAs are embracing the power of creative and cultural assets to support health and wellbeing, and what more we can do to embed creative health more sustainably into our systems, maximising its potential to contribute to population health and address inequalities.

Mayoral Strategic Authorities and Creative Health 

Mayoral Strategic Authorities are key players in the creative health ecosystem. As a regional tier of government, MSAs can use their devolved powers in areas such as housing, transport, culture, work and skills, and police and crime to strategically align investment and infrastructure and organise public services in a way that best meets local need and promotes economic growth across clusters of local authorities. 

While until now only Greater Manchester has held a devolved health remit, typically a MSA will have powers relating to a range of complex social and economic factors that have such an important impact on our health and wellbeing – the wider determinants of health. The forthcoming English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act will devolve more powers and place a statutory duty on all MSAs to consider how they can improve population health and reduce health inequalities. These policy levers encourage MSAs to coordinate cross-sectoral, place-based and preventative approaches to health. As these approaches take shape, there is a timely opportunity to ensure that creative health forms an important part of the conversation from the outset. 

Several MSAs have already taken a strategic approach to creative health. For example, Greater Manchester’s Creative Health Strategy sets out an ambition to become the world’s first Creative Health City Region. West Yorkshire’s Creative Health Consortium brings together cross-sector partners to boost creative health infrastructure across the region, and in the Greater London Authority, creative health is part of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy and Health in All Policies approach. The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network provides a forum for support and knowledge exchange across MSAs who wish to develop their approach to creative health. Our Creative Communities Co-Lab Policy Network project will allow the Network to engage in research exploring how creative health improves population health and adds social and economic value across a whole system, and to co-design sustainable investment models. 

Mapping Creative Health Policy Alignment in MSAs 

To begin this process, we brought together representatives from different policy areas, geographies, and with varying levels of expertise in creative health to discuss where creative health is already taking place within and across policy domains. 

Facilitated by Lucy Taylor from Make Work Play, participants shared examples of programmes and projects from culture, health and social care, work and skills and the environment, with links to early years education, housing, transport, violence reduction, criminal justice and economic development, highlighting the breadth and scope of creative health.

Example: Early Moves (Greater Manchester)

Early Moves has been developed in partnership with the national dance organisation Rambert and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority School Readiness Team to support pre-school children with their motor skills and to build the skills and confidence of early years practitioners.

The project trains and supports practitioners to introduce structured movement sessions in the daily routine of early years settings, working with children aged 2-4 years. It has demonstrated improvements in children's motor skills, speech, language and communication, as well as positive impacts on practitioner wellbeing and confidence.

Zooming out to consider a whole system approach, we mapped the cross-sectoral partnerships, initiatives and infrastructure necessary to address complex challenges such as health inequalities and began to imagine how a creative health approach could support a MSA to address these. 

Example: West Yorkshire Creative Health System

A scene setting presentation from Jim Hinks, Head of Culture, Heritage and Sport Policy, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and David McQuillan, Arts & Health Programme Manager at South West Yorkshire Partnership nos foundation Trust, described the development of a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model for creative health, centred around a collaborative hub, bringing together a constellation of creative health providers, five place-based work programmes and a matrix of stakeholders to develop infrastructure for creative health across a whole system.

 The process identified opportunities for creative health to feed into MSA priorities:

• Prevention and neighbourhood models of health: The shift to a more preventative and community-based approach to health, as set out in the NHS 10-year plan and reflected in the new health duty for MSAs, is a key lever for creative health. This shift promotes join up across local services, including health, local authorities and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to provide person-centred support. Creative health can be built into the provision of neighbourhood health and used to engage residents in the co-design of such services.
• Regeneration and placemaking incorporating housing, transport and the built environment. Creativity and culture can play a vital role in engaging residents in the design of their neighbourhoods, supporting social cohesion and social capital within communities and boosting pride in place.
• Work and skills and employment: Many MSAs could provide examples of creative health in action improving workforce wellbeing and supporting people that are unemployed on a pathway back to work. Creative health also provides new opportunities for the creative workforce.
• Good growth – Delivering economic development and growth is a primary function of a MSA. Health and economic growth are intrinsically linked, with improved health an outcome of economic growth, and good health a precursor to a stronger economy. Creative health therefore contributes to the growth agenda as an important element of the cultural and creative industries and through its influence on population health. In order to address health inequalities it will be vital that this growth is inclusive and the benefits are felt by all residents. 

What next? 

The workshop highlighted opportunities and common challenges for creative health felt in MSAs across the country, which will inform the direction of this research. 

There was a clearly expressed need to embed creative health more sustainably within a MSA, moving away from short-term project-based work towards long-term, cross-sectoral investment which can support preventative approaches and provide evidence of impact over time. To achieve this, it will be necessary to demonstrate and communicate the value of creative health consistently and coherently and in a way that is meaningful to decisionmakers in a devolved policy context.  

The next stages of this research will investigate how this might be achieved, working towards tools and resources that will be useful to those looking to make the case for creative health in their own systems, as well as a set of recommendations for policymakers.  

AHRC Creative Communities is a multi-million-pound research programme based at Northumbria University. AHRC Creative Communities Co-Lab Policy Network Awards are cross-sector cultural policy networks in devolved nations and regions of the UK. They create new capacity for cross-sector collaborative exchange of policy ideas relating to culture and devolution (regional and national) in the context of the UK Government Missions. Find out more here: https://creativecommunities.uk/research_articles/co-lab-policy-networks-2026/

The award-winning festival, which is supported by Arts Council England, features a vibrant programme that highlights the library network’s full offer, across wellbeing, culture and creativity, digital and information, and, of course, reading.

Festival of Libraries won Best Event at the Manchester Culture Awards 2024 and was named the second Most Inclusive Literature Festival by Inclusive Books For Children in 2025.

Creative Manchester has curated a series of four free events for the Festival programme, showcasing our research, in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and the Linguistic Diversity Collective.

Writing for Wellbeing workshops will see poets from the Centre for New Writing run two sessions at Stockport and Manchester libraries, exploring how creative writing can positively impact wellbeing.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective will present ‘Roots, Resistance, Reinvention: Exporing Jamaican Patois/Patwah [Creole]’ which will explore how dictionaries define words and will take place at the Old Trafford Library. This interactive event will explore the meanings, uses, origins, and evolution of Jamaican Patwa. It draws on research from Dr Serge Sagna, of the Linguistic Diversity Collective and is aimed at all generations of people of Jamaican descent living in Manchester along with members of the wider public who would like to learn more about Jamaican Patwa / Patois. All are welcome.

‘Tasting Children's Literature - An Edible Readathon’ will provide a family-friendly, immersive session exploring foods in children's literature. The workshop will engage children in drawing pictures of and telling stories about the foods that come to life in their favourite stories, as well as the foods that mean most to them and their communities.

Find out more about the University’s Festival of Libraries workshops and book your free places by visiting Eventbrite.

Organised with help from the Department of Computer Science, ‘Music and Manchester: The Past, Present and Future of the Computer in Electronic Music’ addressed the city’s contributions to electronic music from an interdisciplinary perspective. The event explored the themes in computer science, musical composition and history, and asked what Manchester’s past can tell us about the future of machine‑assisted creativity. 

Manchester’s influence on popular music has long been celebrated, with bands such as Oasis, The Smiths and Joy Division/New Order cementing the city’s reputation. Furthermore, Manchester’s contributions to computing are well known, with the University of Manchester celebrating 75 years since the development of the Turing Test this academic year. However, far less attention has been afforded to the intersection of these two histories, the city’s contributions to electronic music.  

The event addressed three main components of this musical relationship: the early development of electronic music and Turing's work in Manchester; electronic music facilities and research at The University of Manchester throughout the years; and contemporary human-machine collaborations shaping the future of electronic music.  

The event began with a welcome address by Creative Manchester Director, Professor John McAuliffe, before Dr Riza Batista-Navarro (Senior Lecturer in Text Mining and Creative Manchester Theme Lead for Creative Industries and Innovation/CreaTech) introduced the aims and speakers for the day.  

The first lightning talk was delivered by Dr Jonathan Swinton, a former mathematical biologist and author of Alan Turing’s Manchester. Dr Swinton highlighted that Turing himself was not especially interested in musical composition. Instead, it was the need to market computers that encouraged early experiments in using machines for entertainment. While Turing did not compose electronic music, contemporaries such as Christopher Strachey were instrumental in developing some of the earliest computer-generated works. 

Dr Iain Emsley (Research Software Engineer, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick) then turned to the representation of sound in computing, drawing on the archive of Eric Sunderland, a maintenance engineer on Manchester’s Atlas machine who created polyphonic music using the computer. Dr Emsley highlighted the challenges of researching such archives, which are often incomplete: while numerical data survives, the sounds and voices those numbers once represented are frequently lost. 

Manchester’s electroacoustic heritage was explored further by Professor David Berezan (Professor of Electroacoustic Music Composition and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios and MANTIS). Professor Berezan traced the history of the University’s electroacoustic studios, founded in 1967, from sparse archival records in the 1980s through a period of rebirth from the early 1990s to the present. These developments led to the founding of the MANTIS Festival and the NOVARS Research Centre in 2007, with a strong emphasis on taking electronic music out of the studio and into live performance. 

Subsequently, Professor Frank Boons (Professor of Innovation and Sustainability, The University of Manchester; Professor of Political Economy of Sustainability, Maastricht University) reflected on his personal journey with electronic music. Drawing on Zen Buddhist teachings from Shunryū Suzuki, he described a ‘second beginning’ with music later in life. Professor Boons considered the concept of the ‘musical centaur’, a human musician assisted by a machine, alongside the risk of ‘reverse musical centaurs’, where humans become appendages of uncaring machines. 

The final lightning talk was delivered by Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina (Bicentenary Fellow in Music), who offered a glimpse into the future of machine involvement in music. Discussing her research project OperAI, an immersive opera with live audience interaction, Dr Huang-Kokina explored the artistic and technical challenges of integrating AI into performance. She also previewed her forthcoming project, ‘Emotion Engine’, which creates a real-time feedback loop between audience response and stage design, concluding with the question: “If the stage can finally listen, what will audiences say?” Dr Huang-Kokina’s work will be further discussed at the forthcoming research café, Future of Opera: Human-AI Improvisation, on 19 May 2026.

Following the lightning talks, a panel discussion featuring Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina, Dr Iain Emsley, Professor Chenghua Lin (Professor of Natural Language Processing) and Dr Jemily Rime (Professor of Electronic and Produced Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and chaired by Professor Sean Bechhofer (Professor, Department of Computer Science). The panellists discussed what the role of machines should be in music production.  

Following the event, attendees were invited to view Turing – Machine, a sound installation by Professor Frank Boons that articulates the evolving ways in which humans and computers interact, and an interactive two-player musical Turing test by PhD student Harry O’Brien. 

To stay informed about Creative Manchester’s work in the Creative Industries and Innovation/CreaTech theme, as well as our other events and activities, please sign up to our mailing list.

This notable three-way partnership is centred on creative health and will help to foster a deeper academic and cultural exchange between Japan and the UK in this area of research. It will form the basis for future research collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Greater Manchester (GM) is recognised as a national and world reference for creative health. Building on a long history of arts and health work, GM launched its Creative Health Strategy in 2022, with ambitions for GM to become the world’s first Creative Health City Region. The GM Creative Health Place Partnership continues to support the development and delivery of creative health activity across Greater Manchester.

As part of this MoU, the three partners (UoM, the ART-based Platform for Co-creation, and NCAR), will work collaboratively with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) GM Place Partnership, to strengthen international research collaborations.

The agreement will be formally signed in Tokyo on 23 May 2026, following the NCAR Co-Creation Forum Vol.2: Enhancing Wellbeing with Museums ―Place-Based Co-Creation in the UK and Japan, at The National Art Center, Tokyo, where colleagues from The University of Manchester will present on creative health initiatives in Greater Manchester.

Whilst in Tokyo, The University of Manchester and GMCA colleagues have been invited to speak at the Kyoto University International Social Prescribing Conference (ISPC 2026), alongside academics from TUA and NCAR.

The University of Manchester is proud to work collaboratively with a number of renowned teaching institutions across the globe, with several partners located in Asia including Manchester-Chinese University of Hong Kong, Manchester-Ashoka University, Manchester O.P. Jindal Global University, Manchester-IISC Bangalore and Manchester-Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

The University collaborates with other institutions around the world at a faculty level through impactful MoUs, ensuring colleagues can collaborate with global peers in their field and access the resources they need to co-create cutting-edge research.

The Faculty of Humanities was a founding member of the Global Humanities Alliance, a partnership that includes the University of Melbourne, University of Toronto, University of Nairobi, Ashoka University, Mahidol University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universitas Gadjah Mada and The University of Manchester.

The University of Manchester is globally renowned for its pioneering research, outstanding teaching and learning, and commitment to social responsibility. We are a truly international university – ranking in the top 50 in a range of global rankings – with a diverse community of more than 44,300 students, 12,800 colleagues and 585,000 alumni. 

Harriet Hillier, a second-year undergraduate student in Music at the University of Manchester, has been awarded the Stuart Hall Essay Prize for 2026. The prize, worth £2,000, is open to UK-based academics, students, journalists and other writers aged 18-30, and aims to stimulate new contributions to the areas of political, cultural and educational research pioneered by the Jamaican-British cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall.

Harriet’s essay, ‘Choosing a Nation: Identity, Belonging, and Representation in International Sport’, was the unanimous choice of the judging panel. The essay focuses in particular on fencing, a sport at which Harriet has represented Great Britain in international competitions.

The judges, Professor Catherine Hall, Professor Jo Littler and Professor Kennetta Hammond Perry, gave the following comments on the prize-winning essay: “This essay applies Hall’s conjunctural method to read culture at the intersection of political, economic and ideological forces. The case study is of fencing as an international sport and the author applies their experience of it as a participant to discuss what it means to represent a nation at this time, in a post-Brexit world in which borders have become ever more problematic, where sport is transnational yet aims to figure as a key symbol of national unity, and athletes adopt strategic nationalities in order to gain funding enabling them to compete. The essay is beautifully written and engages throughout with different aspects of Hall’s thinking – put to work in relation to the specificity of now. The moment – it is argued – is one of both crisis and opportunity: it raises the question as to what kind of nation we want to be, and insists that the nation’s story can be retold. We appreciated its extrapolation of the hybrid histories of the sport, its grasp of the neoliberal dynamics shaping its present, and its deft threading through of personal experience to tell the story on multiple levels”.

The winning essay has been published on the Stuart Hall Foundation website.

The formal handover of the Inquiry Memorial to the University of Manchester will take place on Tuesday 24 March. The University is providing a permanent home for the Inquiry Memorial. 

The Inquiry Memorial is located in a central location that has limited space so we will livestream the formal handover for Inquiry participants who would like to follow online or watch the recording afterwards.  

The livestream will begin at 14.00 on Tuesday 24 March. Sir Brian Langstaff will make remarks as part of the event. If you wish to watch the livestream, please go here.  The recording will be available on the Inquiry website.

From Wednesday 25 March, it will be possible to visit the Inquiry Memorial at the University of Manchester.  The Inquiry Memorial is in the Old Quadrangle of the University of Manchester, on the ground floor of the Whitworth Building which is open weekdays 7am – 5:30pm.  The Inquiry Memorial is also visible from the Old Quadrangle without entering the Whitworth Building.

The researchers aim to develop AI tools that can understand the differences between multiple versions of prints throughout history, allowing scholars to understand how early imagery was made and circulated, along with the practices of printers and their workshops. 

The team consists of Guyda Armstrong (Professor of Italian and Director of the John Rylands Research Institute at the University of Manchester); Caroline Jay (Professor of Computer Science and Head of Engineering Research at the University of Manchester); Ian Gifford (Head of the Digital Development Team at the University of Manchester Library); Tom Higgins (Senior Software Developer in the University of Manchester Library’s Digital Development Team); Giles Bergel (Senior Researcher in Digital Humanities at the University of Oxford); Andrew Zisserman (Royal Society Research Professor and Professor of Computer Vision Engineering at the University of Oxford); and Prasanna Sridhar (Software Engineer at the University of Oxford).

Professor Richard Curry, Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation in the University's Faculty of Science and Engineering, said: "It's fantastic news that the Manchester-led project Envisioning Print with AI Computer Vision, has been selected for this Schmidt Sciences award. This project is an exemplary, highly interdisciplinary collaboration between humanities researchers and computational experts, and its cutting-edge mixed methodologies will shape future innovation  with real-world impacts in line with the University's Manchester 2035 ambitions."

Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, added: “Our newest technologies may shed light on our oldest truths, on all that makes us human – from the origins of civilization to the peaks of philosophical thought to contemporary art and film, Schmidt Sciences’ Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) is poised to change not only the course of scholarship, but also the way we see ourselves and our role in the world.”

Schmidt Sciences has awarded $11 million to 23 research teams around the world who are exploring new ways to bring artificial intelligence into dialogue with the humanities, from archaeology and art history to literature, linguistics, film studies, and beyond. As part of the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI), these interdisciplinary teams will both apply AI to illuminate the human record and draw on humanistic questions, methods, and values to advance how AI itself is designed and used.

Schmidt Sciences is a nonprofit organisation founded in 2024 by Eric and Wendy Schmidt that works to accelerate scientific knowledge and breakthroughs with the most promising, advanced tools to support a thriving planet. The organisation prioritises research in areas poised for impact, including AI and advanced computing, astrophysics, biosciences, climate, and space – as well as supporting researchers in a variety of disciplines through its science systems program.

Two award winners were announced on the evening:

Anne Boyd Rioux took The PFD Prize, an annual award for the most promising piece of fiction from the MA Creative Writing dissertation, as chosen by the leading London literary agency, Peters, Fraser and Dunlop. The winner receives a cash prize and the opportunity to work with an agent at PFD to develop their writing towards publication. 

Anne is a former English professor from New Orleans and a biographer specializing in American women writers. She is the author of three non-fiction books and the popular Substack newsletter Audacious Women, Creative Lives.  She is currently working on her upcoming first novel A War of Her Own, based on the real-life story of the New Yorker writer Kay Boyle. Trapped in France during WWII with her abusive husband, the artist Laurence Vail, and his ex-wife Peggy Guggenheim, she fell in love with an Austrian refugee who needed rescuing as much as she did. Many years later, however, the consequences of her decisions during the war continue to reverberate through the lives of her children.

Kieron Fairweather, Associate Agent at PFD added:

The MA Poetry Prize went to Ellie Grant. Ellie is a neuroqueer poet. She takes inspiration from childhood, the pockets of green in her local London, and the pockets of dark in urban places where green things tend to grow. She placed second in the The University of Manchester Micropoetry Competition in 2024 and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2025.

Ellie commented:

The editorial team for this year’s anthology consisted of Samantha Graham, Tom Pyle and Dylan Stewart:

Samantha commented: "So many hours of work have gone into producing this Anthology, both from myself, Tom, and Dylan and from our peers whose brilliant writing is featured within it, and I couldn’t be prouder of the book that we have collectively created. Overseeing and managing this project has been the highlight of my postgraduate experience and I’m so glad to have been able to celebrate the completion of it at the launch event last month."

Tom added: "Being part of the editorial trio for The Manchester Anthology 2025 has been a challenge and a privilege. Seeing the work that it takes to get a book to print, having complete creative control over the process but most importantly being able to showcase the range of talent from the writers in this MA cohort; people who we’ve sat in workshops with and watched develop throughout the year. To have this book as a marker in the sand feels appropriate and, personally, gives me a lot of satisfaction."

Past contributors to The Manchester Anthology have gone on to become successful established authors: Beth Underdown’s debut novel, The Witchfinder’s Sister, was a Richard and Judy bestseller; Alys Conran was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize for her debut novel, Pigeon; Nat Ogle, author of In The Seeing Hands of Others, was shortlisted for The White Review Poet's Prize; Joe Carrick-Varty’s collection, More Sky, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; Thomas D. Lee’s novel, Perilous Times, was a Sunday Times bestseller; Jessica Moor was named one of the ten best debut novelists of 2020 by Observer New Review, and was also shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize.

Associate Dean for Business Engagement, Civic & Cultural Partnerships , Professor Richard Allmendinger introduced the nominees from each school.

The winners, announced by Maggie Gale, were: 

Alliance Manchester Business School 

• Prof Jian-Bo Yang & Prof Dong‑Ling Xu, for their KTP with Kennedys to develop and embed an intelligent data driven fraud prevention and detection service for insurance claim handling, utilising modern machine learning, text analytics and semantic technologies. 

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 

• Prof Eithne Quinn, for work on racial bias in the judicial system enabled through a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship project undertaken by Keir Monteith KC, which  has received significant media coverage and follow-on projects in related areas. 

School of Social Sciences 

• Prof Emma Barrett for a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship with Limina Immersive “Building a safer Metaverse: Exploring the challenges faced by industry in developing safe, secure and ethical immersive experiences”.  The project supported a successful £80K SPRITE+ funding bid for a deep dive expected to result in a step change in our industry engagement around XR and fostered new cross-disciplinary and external collaborations. 

School of Environment, Education & Development 

• Dr Emma Shuttleworth For collaborating with key stakeholders, including the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Groundwork Greater Manchester, to lead KTPs that have developed a data-driven framework for innovative sustainable water management in the Irwell catchment and optimised the long-term financial health of the Groundwork Trust. 

At the end of the Awards ceremony Richard Allmendinger announced the launch of a seed-funding call for academics across the faculty to submit bids for up to £7k to support early-stage development of collaborative projects with partners. Full information on the call available here.

The full list of nominated projects: 

Alliance Manchester Business School 

• Dr Arijit De, Associate Professor in Management Science  For his work in establishing Maritime Engineering and Management as a new cluster theme at UoM, including work with Port of Dover, DFDS, Ship & Bunker, Sealand and Smart Green Shipping building a substantial portfolio of research in maritime, port, and freight logistics with these partners, a REF Impact Case Study in freight and maritime logistics is in development.
• Prof Yu-wang Chen, Professor of Decision Sciences and Business Analytics  KTP – AMBS & Port of Dover Digital Twin project - the largest KTP awarded by Innovate UK.
• Dr Pedro Sampaio, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems  KTP – AMBS & AV Unibrak - to design, develop and embed an Industry 4.0 inspired data driven business model and management information framework which will support the company's strategic vision of expansion.
• Prof David Hughes, Professor of Personality and Organisational Psychology & Nadia Papamichail, Professor of Decision Systems & Management Sciences  KTP - AMBS & Jackson Lees to create sustainable growth and productivity improvement by combining behavioural psychology profiling and emotional regulation with advanced data science techniques to tackle complex work processes and transform the way JLG engages, supports its clients and staff through the legal frameworks. DH was shortlisted for Academic of the Year at the 2025 KTP Awards.
• Prof Brian Nicholson, Professor of Business Information Systems & Dr Sung Hwan Chai, Lecturer in Accounting KTP: AMBS & Beever & Struthers - To develop, embed and exploit advanced smart data driven technologies to deliver digital transformation within the audit function significantly increasing quality, productivity and capacity to deliver additional insight and value to clients.
• Prof Judy Zolkiewski, Professor of Marketing  KTP projects - AMBS & HMG Paints, IPEC, IVS & AV Unibrak. To create a smarter business that is both client-driven whilst also enhancing improved employee interactions, within a unified customer-centric framework that can support product and service innovation.
• Prof Jian-Bo Yang, Professor of Decision and System Sciences & Prof Ling (Dong‑Ling) Xu, Chair Professor of Decision Science and Systems  KTP - AMBS & Kennedys to develop and embed an intelligent data driven fraud prevention and detection service to support insurance claim handling utilising modern machine learning, text analytics techniques and semantic technologies, that can shape and add value to business. 

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures  

• Prof Eithne Quinn, Professor of Cultural and Socio‑legal Studies  For work on racial bias in the judicial system enabled through a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship project undertaken by Keir Monteith KC which has received significant media coverage and led to a follow-on project on mis-use of lyrics in rap music in criminal court cases.
• Prof Steve Scott-Bottoms, Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance Leeds City Council IAA 574 Proof of Concept - Finding the Story ARC: Engaging businesses with climate resilience in Yorkshire’s Aire valley  IAA 496 Advance - The Rivalry Project: Extending Stakeholder Engagement with Climate Resilience in the Catchment of the Aire
• Dr Kostas Arvanitis, Senior Lecturer in Museology  Manchester Art Gallery IAA 367 Secondment - Therapeutic Impact of Physical, Digital and Virtual Collections of Trauma.
• Dr Kostas Arvanitis, Senior Lecturer in Museology & Dr Andy Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Practices  KTP - SALC & Port Sunlight Village Trust - creating and embedding a framework and tool-kit underpinned by museological and critical heritage research to transform the ways in which PSVT manages and interprets its history, site and collections.
• Prof Sasha Handley, Professor of Early Modern History  Salford Community Leisure - IAA 508 Secondment - Sleeping Well Salford: Using Historic Sleep Practices to Support Health and Social Care Pathways. 

School of Environment, Education & Development 

• Dr Emma Shuttleworth, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography  Working collaboratively with a number of key stakeholders on environmental sustainability projects including Environment Agency, and leading on KTPs with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Groundwork Trust to create and embed a data driven catchment management framework that will drive innovative evidence-based sustainable water management within the Irwell catchment and optimise long-term financial health for Groundwork Greater Manchester.
• Dr Sophie van Huellen, Senior Lecturer in Development Economics  Simon Industrial Fellowship Project - Why Ghanaian farmers have been unable to capitalise on record cocoa prices with Fuad Mohammed Abubakar, Managing Head of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company (UK) Ltd.
• Dr Joanne Tippett, Lecturer in Spatial Planning  Manchester UNESCO Creative City of Literature IAA 425 Secondment - Imagining sustainable futures: self-facilitated learning from heritage through art and play in UNESCO-designated sites. Shortlisted for ‘Transformative Social Venture of the Year’ award at the KEUK Awards 2024. 

“The RoundView is a powerful way to activate and build capacity in UNESCO’s core competencies for sustainability leadership”. James Ömer Bridge, Secretary-General of UNESCO UK. 

“The Secondment demonstrated that the RoundView learning toolkit offers great promise to address a key challenge we experience as UNESCO sites, of linking our work to sustainable development… and enabling us to translate SDG 13 Climate Action into an accessible activity. A key finding from the Secondment was that the ‘poetry as pedagogy’ incorporated into the toolkit helps encourage sustainability learning through literature, a key need for both us as Cities of Literature and our library partners.” Ivan Wadeson, Executive Director of Manchester UNESCO City of Literature.

• Dr Nuno Pinto, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Urban Design  For demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation through the establishment and continued development of the MSc Data Science student industry-project programme. His dedication has transformed the initiative into a thriving platform for student engagement and real-world impact, with its success growing year on year. Nuno’s commitment to expanding the programme is evident in his active collaboration with fellow academics, fostering the creation of similar opportunities across other schools. His work exemplifies the spirit of business engagement and makes him a worthy nominee for the Faculty of Humanities Business Engagement award.
• Prof Sarah Marie Hall, Professor in Human Geography  IAA projects with Manchester Central Foodbank  IAA 468 Relationship Development - Developing community-led, anti-poverty research capacity.  IAA 503 Proof of Concept - Developing Manchester’s Anti-Poverty Research Community: Co-Producing Grassroots Collaborations for Positive Social Change. Winner of UoM Making a Difference Award 2024 in the Outstanding public engagement initiative: Local/civic engagement category
• Prof Nicola Banks, Professor of Global Development  IAA project with One World Together - Activating citizen philanthropy for community-centred social justice: piloting a One World Together Global Citizenship curriculum for secondary schools.
• Prof Alison Browne, Professor of Geography  IAA project with Artesia Consulting Ltd - the project brings together data analytics and social science insights to develop a Water Practices Analytical Toolkit for use in the water industry, offering a unique approach for managing the sustainability of water and influencing the UK’s long-term usage, average and peak water demands. 

School of Social Sciences 

• Prof Tine Buffel, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology  Age Friendly Manchester (Manchester City Council)  IAA 401 Secondment - Developing age-friendly communities to support healthy ageing: Exploring the potential of a policy innovation partnership between public agencies and faith-based organisations in Greater Manchester.
• Prof Emma Barrett, Professor of Psychology, Security and Trust  Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship with Limina Immersive “Building a safer Metaverse: Exploring the challenges faced by industry in developing safe, secure and ethical immersive experiences”.  The SIF project supported a successful £80K SPRITE+ funding bid for a deep dive expected to result in a step change in our industry engagement around XR and fostered new cross-disciplinary and external collaborations. The work also informed EB’s presentation at the Home Office Digital Forensics Conference in June 2025, alongside Innovate UK. 

One of the highlights was Professor John McAuliffe, Creative Manchester’s Platform Director, taking part in the panel discussion “Civic, Creative and Cultural: University Collaboration”. The session brought together members of the Greater Manchester Civic Universities Board, including Professor Kirsty Fairclough (School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Sam Ingleson (University of Salford) and Professor Wiebke Thormählen (Royal Northern College of Music). Together, they demonstrated how universities are helping to create a more connected, creative and equitable city-region through strategic partnerships and cultural engagement.

Creative Manchester also invited three PhD students and their supervisors along to BEYOND for their CreaTech Student Research Showcase. The showcase, located among many other exciting product and research demos in the Immersive Futures Lab, featured the students’ PhD research and celebrated the University of Manchester’s vibrant postgraduate research community. These projects show how creative technology can tackle real-world challenges across diverse industries:

• Pingting Xiao - PhD in Electroacoustic Music Composition
  Stream of Strings explores embodied music cognition, blending cultural heritage with creative technology to create motion-responsive performances and visual works. The project reimagines the ancient Chinese Guqin as an interactive instrument for live performance and public engagement. She is supervised by Professor Ricardo Climent.

• Harry O’Brien - PhD in Electroacoustic Music Composition
  Data Sonification for Algorithm Behaviour uses sonification, the mapping of non-auditory data into sound, to better understand how optimisation algorithms work. This approach advances mathematical research while inspiring educational tools and musical compositions. He is also supervised by Professor Ricardo Climent.

• Bowen Xue - PhD in Computer Science
  ReflectanceFusion is a neural text-to-texture model that generates editable, relightable materials from text prompts. It enables precise control of physical attributes, producing highly accurate textures for rendering and material design. He is supervised by Dr Zahra Montazeri. 

The showcase sparked lively conversations among attendees, with many playing the Guqin virtually via a Leap Motion Controller and others listening to the beats generated by algorithms being solved in real time. Not only did the students get to practise their pitching skills, but they also found partners for onward collaboration and learning. It was great to see how the next generation of researchers and business partners can come together and seize opportunities for R&D.

More content from BEYOND 2025 will be shared soon, but you can watch this reel to get an idea of the atmosphere at this special conference. Follow our social channels to stay updated.

ROGER LING, Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology

It is very sad to report that Roger Ling, a distinguished member of the Art History staff at the University of Manchester for more than 50 years - as lecturer, senior lecturer, Professor, and emeritus - died at the beginning of November after a long illness.  During much of that time the Department had expanded to its maximum extent in terms of personnel and breadth of interests, which extended from the classical to modern periods. But early on it was Roger who for a number of years singlehandedly saw to the teaching of ancient and classical art at all undergraduate and postgraduate levels, until he was joined by colleagues with interests in early Greece and pre-Roman Italy, as well as in Minoan and Egyptian art, enabling him to concentrate more on the Roman world.                 

Roger was, in international terms, a leading historian of ancient Roman art and architecture. His deep knowledge of Pompeii originated from his PhD on stuccowork in Roman Italy, and he went on to publish many books on related topics, including Roman painting (on which he wrote the standard English textbook), and mosaics - he was also a frequent contributor to the journal Mosaic which focused on the rich material of Roman Britain. But Roger’s lasting monument is the four-volume Insula of the Menander at Pompeii published by Oxford University Press, to which his wife Lesley, who died three years before him, was a major contributor and was co-author of volume 2 (on the wall decorations). This housing block occupied a large residential space in the ancient town and encompassed a number of dwellings along with various service areas. As well as meticulous recording of archaeological detail, the Menander volumes offer a fascinating human history concerning the different social classes that inhabited the various parts of the insula at different periods, from the impoverished to families of the highest rank.    

For all the time that he worked at Manchester, Roger and Lesley lived a characteristically austere life in beautiful but remote parts of the High Peak near Buxton. Internet receptivity could never be relied on. Without a television, Roger would go over to friends and neighbours, or the local pub, to follow his favourite team, Watford FC. Without a car, he would ski across the fields in winter to the local station at Chapel-en-le-Frith to catch the Manchester train in time for his early morning lectures. Occasionally he would sleep over in his office in the department if the weather got too bad for the return journey. But with a knowing smile, Roger remained cheerful and imperturbable in almost all circumstances. Only departmental meetings succeeded in disturbing his equilibrium.

Following on from a successful series in 2024, this year's events bring together University of Manchester researchers, creatives from fashion, music and publishing and professionals from the technology industry for important conversations about emerging technologies.

Throughout this series AI will be the focus and approached via three different themes. The pace of development of this technology is rapid and leads the creative sector into previously unchartered territory, which may prove as much a threat as it provides opportunity to the future of the creative and cultural industries.

Please book your free place via Eventbrite.
 

Creativity + AI: Music
Monday 12 May, SISTER, M1 3NJ
How can creative businesses take advantage of emerging technologies and create opportunities for innovation and knowledge exchange? A panel of expert speakers will explore applications, challenges and opportunities of AI in the Music industry focussing on creative technologies for composition, inclusive economic development of regional and national creative clusters and more.

Book your spot
 

Creativity + AI: Publishing
Monday 16 June, Oddfellows Hall, M1 7HF
The rapid expansion of AI is impacting and changing the publishing industry. We will be asking a panel of publishers, authors and librarians to reflect on the pace of change in the sector, and where they see opportunities emerging for their work. We will be asking how best we can take advantage of new technologies and how new technologies are taking advantage of creatives.

Book your spot
 

Creativity + AI: Fashion
Thursday 26 June, Arbeta, M40 5BP
How can fashion businesses can take advantage of emerging technologies affecting design, materials, production and retail, and create opportunities for innovation and knowledge exchange?

Book your spot