¡Viva! turns 30

Valentina o la serenidad (Valentina or the Serenity), showing at ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival

HOME’s ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Festival turns thirty this year. A reliable, outstanding highlight in Manchester’s cinematic calendar, the film festival has been drawing committed audiences of film buffs, Spanish speakers, language learners, and culturally curious crowds since 1995.

Ahead of ¡Viva!’s 30th edition this April, Tom Grieve takes a look at what makes audiences return year after year, how it has evolved since its inception, and what the future holds for the festival.

Of course, Manchester itself has changed drastically over the course of the festival’s run – you only have to glance at the city’s skyline to see that. ¡Viva! has moved with the times too. Significantly, in the mid-2000s, its remit was expanded from just Spanish film to include the exciting new movies that were coming out of Spanish-speaking Latin America. In 2015, it physically moved up the road from the closing Cornerhouse on Oxford Road to its current location at First Street’s HOME. The format has changed as well, with an intense ten-day event relaxed to a more leisurely three-week structure that avoids clashes in the schedule.

The basics haven’t changed too much though. Each year audiences can expect a huge spread of films sourced from across Spain and Latin America. The selection are films that don’t make it onto the regular independent cinema circuit, with an emphasis on UK premieres, often accompanied by visits from the filmmakers themselves. The atmosphere meanwhile is international, inclusive and celebratory; boosted by a selection of additional shows, parties and community-minded events engineered to bring people together.

Secaderos (Tobacco Barns), showing at ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival.
Secaderos (Tobacco Barns), showing at ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival.

The current long-standing programming team consists of Rachel Hayward, HOME’s Head of Film Strategy, Jessie Gibbs, ¡Viva! Festival Coordinator, plus the University of Salford’s Andy Willis who is HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator: Film. They’re supported by Manchester’s Instituto Cervantes, who are festival friends and partners who provide support, translation assistance and some staffing for supplementary events such as Cafe Cervantes, an informal Spanish language chat that encourages audiences to discuss all
things ¡Viva!

In an effort to understand ¡Viva!’s place in Manchester’s cultural landscape, I sat down with Hayward and Gibbs to discuss just what goes into producing a festival that can keep its audience engaged for so many years. Having worked on the festival in different ways since 2005, they are well placed to take us through the highlights, challenges and behind-the-scenes antics that have shaped ¡Viva! into its current form.

To start, what makes a ¡Viva! film? Haywood tells us that they can be split into three broad categories. Firstly, there’s loud, celebratory films which give us a flavour of what is mainstream in their country of origin. These are often big comedies or slick genre films with a fun, audience-friendly vibe. Secondly, there’s the more politically, socially or historically engaged work which might highlight issues of local or national importance – these are more akin to some of HOME’s regular cinema programme.

Then, there’s a more slippery category of films, which Hayward describes as “madcap, oddball things, where you see them and think, that’s perfect for ¡Viva!”. The classic examples are the films of Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, a perennial ¡Viva! favourite who the festival has championed from very early on. With titles such as The Day of the Beast and Witching & Bitching, the cult director is known for combining elements of horror, science fiction and comedy into bizarre, beloved concoctions that are entirely his own. A good part of what keeps the festival fresh and forward-looking is an emphasis on championing early-career filmmakers.

This takes work.

The titles on show at ¡Viva! are picked up from around the globe, with staff travelling to the likes of Cannes, Toronto, Berlin and San Sebastian, searching the film festivals for treasures that have eluded the UK’s regular film distributors. There’s no open call for submissions, but after thirty years, there is a network of producers, filmmakers and their friends who have had happy experiences at the festival and are more than willing to tip the programming team to compelling new movies that fit the brief.

One of the festival’s main draws is the number of guests who arrive to talk about their work each year. But while ¡Viva! introduces Manchester to exciting filmmakers from around Spain and Latin America, the reverse is also true. Hayward and Gibbs tell us about the rewards of introducing actors and directors to Manchester. From taking the award-winning Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl to Jilly’s Rockworld, to the performer who had to unroll a film poster to use as proof of age at a nightclub, the talent seems to embrace the city and its audiences.

¡Viva! 2013 - Rachel Hayward, Dave Moutrey, Jessie Gibbs, Kepa Gonzalez
¡Viva! 2013 – Rachel Hayward, Dave Moutrey, Jessie Gibbs, Kepa Gonzalez


It helps that Manchester has a global reputation of its own. On a grey day, it might be difficult for Mancunians to imagine what attracts artists from sunnier climes, but the city’s creative spirit does have an allure. Hayward mentions Argentinian director Gabriel Nesci, who opened the festival’s 20th edition with his film Días de vinilo (Days of Vinyl), as an example of just one of the guests thrilled to be in close geographical proximity to Manchester’s historic music scene – and the Northern Quarter’s record shops.

Of course, ¡Viva! is first and foremost a film festival, but attendees have also enjoyed visual art exhibitions, a multitude of language-centric events, and increasingly, theatre and live performances. HOME’s additional space has allowed the festival to stretch its legs a little more, and recent editions have seen everything from Mexican punk cabaret to contemporary dance from Barcelona. This year, audiences can look forward to Rewind, a stage production about a young woman resisting authoritarianism, that combines music, movement, puppetry and projection.

So what else is on the ¡Viva! horizon? This Spring, the 30th edition runs from 5 – 25 April, with 22 brand new feature films, alongside shorts and five classics from the archive – including one from longtime ¡Viva! favourite de la Iglesia. Of those films, over half are directed by women, while 16 are set to be UK premieres. 2024 also sees the return of filmmaker Q&As featuring guests from Latin America, following a couple of years where travel was too difficult to arrange.

In the longer term, ¡Viva! is in good health. The team is proud to point out that, unusually, the attendance statistics show an even split across age demographics, indicating that young people continue to discover the festival each year. It’ll be up to that next generation to continue to support ¡Viva! both behind the scenes and by filling seats. But for now, the vibrant, globetrotting programme, and lively, engaged audiences point to ¡Viva! remaining a vital part of Manchester’s film scene, into and beyond its thirties.

This article was first published in our Spring Zine

Bicentenary Year. Jonathan Schofield traces 200 years of history. We sit down with the Whitworth’s new director, Sook-Kyung Lee. Plus, Manchester Punk Festival, Lime Art. Tim Brennan & 30 years of ¡Viva! Download
November 2023 Castlefield Gallery at 40

Next year, Castlefield Gallery will celebrate its 40th anniversary and is looking to its past in order to think about the present, and what the future might hold, writes Matthew Pendergast, its Curator and Deputy Director.

Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester’s Bicentenary Year

Lithograph of Owens College, from The Building News, June 1874. Credit: The University of Manchester

Jonathan Schofield explores the fascinating shared history of Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester.

Manchester’s commercial muscle started to flex in the second half of the eighteenth century and went full bodybuilder as the nineteenth century progressed. The region was ripe with ideas and numerous individuals wanted in.

The energy at the time was remarkable with an insatiable thirst for new technical processes, new machines, new solutions. Much of this was driven by a desire to make money with little thought to the social consequences further down the economic ladder.

But the mercenary impulse was not the only one.

There were far loftier ambitions from the start; first in driving forward science, medicine and pure knowledge and then in addressing the city’s social problems. People knew education and training was key to this. They also knew working together was vital.

A quote from those late eighteenth-century days sums up the mood. In 1785 a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (MLPS) wrote: ‘Men, however great their learning often become indolent and unambitious to improve in knowledge for want of associating with others of similar talents and improvements. But science, like fire, is put in motion by collision. Where a number of such men have frequent opportunities of meeting and conversing together, thought begets thought, and every hint is turned to advantage. A spirit of enquiry glows in every breast.’

Replace ‘men’ with ‘people’ and the quote is as relevant today, particularly for institutions of learning such as the University of Manchester (UoM) and Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Met).

A founding member of MLPS was the physician Thomas Percival. He was the society’s president from 1782 to 1804 and was the first person to use the phrase ‘medical ethics’ in a series of pamphlets which still form the basis of the modern approach to the field.

The study of medicine was a high priority given the mortality rates of the time. The human body had to be understood and so Joseph Jordan set up a School of Anatomy in Manchester in 1814, the first in the English provinces. Anatomy needed corpses and Jordan got them by any means he could. On one occasion he was fined but while his ‘resurrectionist’ was gaoled Jordan was released as the magistrate understood the need for students of surgery to learn their trade. Jordan was a curious man and kept human bones under his bed.

The Manchester Technical School on Princess Street. Credit: The University of Manchester
The Manchester Technical School on Princess Street. Credit: The University of Manchester

Thomas Percival was the father of Ann Percival who was the mother of Benjamin Heywood, banker and philanthropist who created and was the first president of The Mechanics’ Institute from its creation in 1824. This is considered Year One of today’s mighty institutions of UoM and Manchester Met despite their complicated family trees.

At a meeting in the Bridgewater Arms on 17 April 1824 it was resolved, in a somewhat patronising manner, that: ‘The object of the institute is to instruct the working classes in the principles of arts they practice and in other branches of useful knowledge, excluding party politics and controversial theology.’

Manchester was already by then the most political of UK cities so maybe the meeting members might not have been too surprised about the debates that rage in the Institute’s 21st century descendants.

The founders included a roll call of Mancunian pioneers. Two examples will suffice. William Fairbairn was a giant of engineering developing new textile machines, perfecting boilers and even building bridges and ships. Joseph Brotherton was a cotton baron who was the first MP for Salford from 1832, an abolitionist, a promoter of national secular education, a campaigner against the death penalty and a prime mover behind the creation of the Vegetarian Society in 1847.

The foundation of the Institute took place seventeen years after the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire but still nine years before an act of Parliament banned the holding and working of slaves within the colonies. It has to be acknowledged some founders had links to slavery including the prime mover, Benjamin Heywood. He was an abolitionist but earlier generations of his family, in Liverpool, had owned slave ships. The origin of his wealth owed much to slavery.

The second building of the Mechanics’ Institute opened in 1856 designed by John Gregan in Manchester’s Italianate ‘palazzo’ style. It still stands on Princess Street. It was here in 1868 where the Trades Union Congress was founded. It was also here in 1851 that Caroline Dexter lectured on ‘Bloomerism’: a movement dedicated to making it permissible for women to wear trousers.

The Mechanic’s Institute morphed into the Manchester Technical School in 1880 by which time Britain’s industrial hegemony was being challenged by Germany, France and the USA which were developing better educational and training systems.

Stepping back in time a little, in 1838 the Manchester School of Design had opened. A notable person involved with this was another great engineer and philanthropist from Manchester, Joseph Whitworth. Whitworth’s name is stamped across the city with Whitworth Street and UoM’s Whitworth Art Gallery and Whitworth Hall. He came from a relatively lowly background and was always interested in design and technical education.

Bear with me here. The Manchester School of Design became the Manchester School of Art of 1853 which linked with another Joseph Whitworth school, The Whitworth Institute, which was tied inextricably to the Manchester Technical School. Thus, a common ancestry is reached with the Mechanics’ Institute.

One notable arrival to the School of Art in 1907 was Adolphe Valette. A Frenchman from St Etienne he’d arrived in the city as a designer for a Manchester printing firm. He attended evening classes at the School of Art and was so good he was invited to teach there. Valette was affectionately known as ‘Monsieur Repent’ by students, a play on his accent and his frequent request to ‘repaint’.
Valette eschewed the notion of painting bucolic rural scenes and instead captured industrial Manchester at its peak particularly the chemical soup of its atmosphere. In Valette’s vision, the physical world is dissolved in water and light, edges soften and colours merge. Beauty is distilled from seemingly brutal industrialisation and pollution. A disciple of Valette’s was Laurence Stephen Lowry and the influence on the ‘matchstick men’ artist is obvious.

Valette, Adolphe; Old Cab at All Saints, Manchester; Manchester Art Gallery; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/old-cab-at-all-saints-manchester-206248
Valette, Adolphe; Old Cab at All Saints, Manchester; Manchester Art Gallery; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/old-cab-at-all-saints-manchester-206248

Years later Ossie Clark would become an alumnus who helped create the swinging sixties with his flamboyant fashion designs. The portrait of Clark and his wife, Celia Birtwell, by David Hockney, is one of the defining images of the period. Fashion design has been a huge part of the Manchester Met story and remains so. Former student Sarah Burton has been the creative designer for the Alexander McQueen fashion house and designed Kate Middleton’s wedding dress when Middleton married Prince William in 2011.

The School of Art became Manchester Polytechnic in 1970 and would play its part in the resurgence of the Manchester punk and indie explosion and again helped create a template for the times. Both Malcolm Garrett and Peter Saville were students along with Mick Hucknall of the band
Simply Red.

Garrett designed for several Greater Manchester bands such as The Buzzcocks and later with other groups such as Duran Duran. He was one of the first people to see the opportunities available through digital technology. Saville was the in-house designer for Factory Records and his work for bands such as Joy Division and New Order, amongst others, has become legendary. The present institution of Manchester Met was created in 1992 out of Manchester Polytechnic. The growth of the university seems to show no signs of slowing.

School of Digital Arts
School of Digital Arts Credit: Manchester Metropolitan University

The fact Carol Ann Duffy, the professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Met, was Poet Laureate between 2009 and 2019 underscores why Manchester Met hosts the Manchester Poetry Library in a recent building, Grosvenor East for the Arts and Humanities faculty. In the last decade or so additions to the estate have included the award-winning Business School, the School of Art’s splendid Benzie Building, the Brooks Building for Health and Education, the pioneering School of Digital Arts and most recently the Institute of Sport.

The Manchester Met estate is fascinating for other historical connections too. The façade of the former Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall forms part of the Arts and Humanities faculty. It was in the then Town Hall where in October 1945, the fifth Pan-African Congress met. As delegate Jomo Kenyatta said: ‘This was a landmark in the…struggle for unity and freedom (in Africa)’.

Time to roll back time again. As we’ve seen Manchester School of Art of 1853 had links with Whitworth Institute from 1891 which then joins with the Manchester Technical School.

It was the legacy of our dear Mr Joseph Whitworth once more which provided funds, through his trustees, to help deliver the splendid buildings (from 1895) on Sackville Street for what was by that time the Municipal School of Technology. The Godlee Observatory that gloriously crowns these buildings was the gift of Francis Godlee, a man we’d now call an early adopter. His telephone number was four. Just four.

Sixty years later, over the railway viaduct from the School of Technology would rise one of the most distinctive university city campuses in the UK with the modernist buildings of what would be the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). This was given its charter in 1968 and is a direct descendant of the Mechanic’s Institute of 1824.

When UMIST merged with the Victoria University of Manchester in 2004 the University of Manchester was born and the link with the Mechanics’ Institute cemented.

Part of that complex family tree had come from a different seed.

John Owens, textile manufacturer and merchant, loner, bachelor, frequently unhealthy and miser, became the unlikely creator of a key element of one of the great European universities. He left in 1846 £94,654 (£16.5m in 2024) to create a non-denominational college (one without religious barriers). The strange little man is commemorated by a statue standing high in its niche close to the main Oxford Road entrance of UoM.

In truth, it was the affable friend of Owens, George Faulkner, who was the real force behind the institution and probably his suggestion in the first place. It was principally his energy which led to the college opening in 1851 and he was the first chair of the trustees until 1858 supplementing the college’s revenues with his own money.

The home of the original Owens College stands on Quay Street, an adapted townhouse from the 1770s that had been the home of Free Trade politician and radical MP Richard Cobden for fourteen years from 1836 to 1850.

The success of the college meant the former house was never going to be large enough so in 1869 the celebrated architect Alfred Waterhouse was commissioned to build (and build grandly) in the neo-Gothic style along suburban Oxford Road. Waterhouse had not long won the competition design for Manchester Town Hall which followed from the success of his Manchester Assize Courts.

Waterhouse’s work is stamped firmly all over these older UoM buildings. In 1888 his Manchester Museum opened, following the opening of London’s Natural History Museum also to his designs. Most of the other buildings here were designed by Alfred or his son Paul. Manchester is unusual with its museums. Take any major European cultural centre and the main museum will be owned and operated by the municipality. In Manchester UoM owns and operates Manchester Museum, plus one of the main art galleries, the Whitworth Art Gallery, as well as the main research library, the incomparable John Rylands Library.

Taxidermist Harry Brazenor, Manchester Museum. Credit The University of Manchester
Taxidermist Harry Brazenor, Manchester Museum. Credit The University of Manchester

Owens College incorporated the Royal Manchester School of Medicine in 1872 and thus the square was circled with Thomas Percival and Joseph Jordan. In 1880 Owens College became the first college of the Victoria University with Liverpool joining in 1884 and Leeds in 1887. Manchester broke free of its fellow northern cities in 1903 and became the Victoria University of Manchester. The merger with UMIST created the entirely sensible moniker of the University of Manchester.

There are many stories.

Down the years there has been astonishing success for the University but let’s start with a scandal eh? George Gissing, before he became the acclaimed novelist of New Grub Street, gained a scholarship to Owens College but was caught red-handed stealing from the college cloakroom in May 1876. He was convicted of theft and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment. He’d wanted the money to ‘reclaim’ a young prostitute, ‘Nell’ Harrison, with whom he’d fallen in love. The shame he felt was apparent in many of his subsequent works.

That is just one dramatic incident in university life, there’s simply too much material to discuss in length here how the university grew in both scale and significance, although perhaps a few instances might be mentioned.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Manchester gathered together one of the best boy bands of scientists in history. Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealander, was persuaded into coming to Manchester in 1907. He was already well-known for winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in Canada.

He took up the position of Chair of Physics at the University and became the centre of an extraordinary ‘nuclear family’. As with today’s educational institutions along Oxford Road, it was a multi-national group. There was Hans Geiger from Germany, of Geiger Counter fame, Australian-born Lawrence Bragg, who would win the 1915 Nobel Prize for his work on X-ray crystallography; Ludwig Wittgenstein from Austria, the analytic philosopher; and Niels Bohr from Denmark, the father of quantum physics. The group would make a series of world-changing discoveries, particularly with regard to atoms.

Rutherford’s laboratory was on Coupland Street, behind Manchester Museum, next door again was a modest building housing the electricity boffins. Alan Turing, famous for his work at Bletchley Park, worked here post-WWII and developed his ‘Turing Test’ or, in his words, the ‘Imitation Game’. This remains the test for artificial intelligence and, of course, it’s never been more relevant.

In the same building at the same time Professors Kilburn and Williams were developing Baby, said to be the first computer with an electronic memory. Freddie Williams subsequently came up with one of the most stirring of scientific quotes.

“A program was laboriously inserted and the start switch pressed. Immediately the spots on the display tube entered a mad dance. In early trials it was a dance of death leading to no useful result, and what was even worse, without yielding any clue as to what was wrong. But one day it stopped, and there, shining brightly in the expected place, was the expected answer. It was a moment to remember. This was in June 1948, and nothing was ever the same again.”

A brand new building on the campus is named for Christabel Pankhurst, daughter of the Suffragette pioneer Emmeline Pankhurst, and just as fierce a campaigner. The family home was a short distance away on Nelson Street. It still survives overshadowed by buildings of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Christabel gained a law degree with honours but was not allowed to practice. In a passionate speech in 1904 in Manchester’s Athenaeum she rebuked the males in the room and pointed out how women must be allowed to practice so they can earn a living, be independent and further, ‘have the right to consult and take advice from women.’

So many stories, so much achievement leading to the University being associated with 25 Nobel Prize winners.

So many mighty buildings too. Let’s take 2022’s spectacular MEC-D, the engineering campus. This is the size of 16 football fields and has a high-voltage room which can generate enough energy to power up a town of 100,000.

Indeed, is there anywhere like Oxford Street/Oxford Road leading to Wilmslow Road in the UK?

The name of the road might vary for historical reasons, but this doesn’t change the fact this is definitely one road and perhaps the most representative in the country. Travel from Fletcher Moss Gardens in Didsbury through Withington, Fallowfield and Rusholme to Whitworth Park, past the vast hospital complex and into the bustling university campuses, and you travel from quiet leafy suburbs to ivory towers via multi-cultural vibrancy and parks. It’s all urban Britain on one road.

For the two great academic institutions of the UoM and Manchester Met it’s been less direct, a long and winding road. Those founders of the Mechanics’ Institute would no doubt be proud of their legacy. From little acorns grow mighty oaks: that two such mighty oaks as UoM and Manchester Met have taken root and flourished is testament to a continuous pursuit of educational ambition and educational entrepreneurship in the city.

Two hundred years on the achievements of alumni are written in Nobel prizes across the world and with numerous pioneers in all walks of life from the sciences through the humanities and into culture and politics.

The Mechanics Institute’s resolution about tuition and study in ‘other branches of useful knowledge’ has spread wide indeed.

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Digital & Tech

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The ID Manchester partnership to reactivate the Renold Building as Innovation Hub

The partnership, a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and The University of Manchester, has revealed plans to reactivate the striking building as a focal point for science, technology, and innovation-related activities

The ID Manchester partnership has announced plans to reactivate the Renold Building as a home for forward-thinking entrepreneurs and SMEs to develop new ideas and solutions that help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. This marks the initial phase of ID Manchester’s ambitious plan to transform The University of Manchester’s former North Campus into a welcoming and accessible new £1.7bn innovation district.  

The new vision for the Renold Building will celebrate its history as an educational hub by hosting the next wave of science and technology innovators and building an inclusive, purpose-driven community. The building will provide a range of coworking, office and meeting facilities to accommodate and support collaboration between researchers, entrepreneurs, businesses and partner organisations. New events and exhibition spaces, including lecture theatres and a community café, will be accessible to local businesses, community groups and arts and culture organisations to host and participate in events and activities. 

An application to convert the building from educational to commercial use has been submitted to Manchester City Council by joint venture partners The University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech. Pending application approval, the building is set to open in late 2024.  

Built in 1962, the Renold Building was the first of its kind in the UK to be entirely comprised of lecture theatres and seminar rooms. It is a building of note for many due to its striking features, including the faceted facade and stair tower, and the impressive internal mural on the lower ground floor. The redevelopment will retain and protect these elements as part of the application, as well as being sympathetic to the building’s exterior facades. Design interventions in the building’s interior will also be light touch, preserving the current condition as far as practically possible. This will allow for further conservation and restoration to be undertaken at a later date, ensuring the building will remain viable for future generations. 

Bradley Topps, Chief Commercial Officer for Bruntwood SciTech and Project Director for ID Manchester, said: “The transformation of the Renold Building into an innovation hub marks an important first step in the development of the trailblazing science and technology ecosystem we’re building at ID Manchester. We recognise the importance of the Renold Building to many in the local community and beyond, and we are committed to reactivating the building in a way that celebrates the rich heritage and architecture of the building. We’re very excited to be creating a new home for the next generation of Manchester innovators.” 

John Holden, Associate Vice-President, The University of Manchester and Executive Committee Member for ID Manchester, said: ”The Renold Building will be an invaluable place to bring together like-minded organisations and partners to collaborate, develop and test new ideas. We’re building our innovation ecosystem from the ground up and the Renold Building will be a place that not only accelerates the growth of our city’s most promising entrepreneurs, SMEs and university spin-outs, but also provides the spaces and opportunities to allow our local communities to participate, experience and benefit from innovation too.”  

The expertise and experience of ID Manchester’s respective partners will be instrumental to the creation of its innovation ecosystem. Bruntwood SciTech, a joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, is the largest dedicated property platform serving the UK’s innovation economy and brings its expertise in developing partnerships across academia, local authorities, cities and the NHS. This year marks The University of Manchester’s bicentenary, celebrating 200 years of key discoveries, world firsts and incredible people, and ID Manchester will build on this storied history of learning, innovation and research. 

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

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Digital & Tech

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Manchester Metropolitan’s state-of-the-art library given planning green light 

Planning permission has been granted for the new state-of-the-art library at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Manchester City Council approved the project today (February 15), which will see the current library at All Saints on Oxford Road replaced with a modern and dynamic learning environment. 

Architects Hawkins\Brown and Schmidt Hammer Lassen were commissioned to design the new iconic building and demolition works are expected to begin on site in the Autumn of 2024. Construction is due to complete in spring 2028, with the library ready for the start of the 2028/29 Academic year. 

Plans were announced for the new Library in November 2023, ahead of Manchester Metropolitan’s 200th birthday. The University is currently celebrating two centuries of driving innovation and progress through excellence in education and research. 

The eye-catching new building will feature digitally enabled teaching and research facilities to enhance students’ data science and analytical skills and flexible break-out spaces to support collaboration and nurture ideas.  

Hawkins\Brown and Schmidt Hammer Lassen have submitted plans to replace a 1970s library at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) with a 13-storey ‘modern and dynamic’ learning tower, and 5 storey tail
Hawkins\Brown and Schmidt Hammer Lassen

It will also house the University’s Special Collection Museum and the Manchester Poetry Library – the North West’s first public poetry library, plus a new gallery and event spaces that public audiences will be invited to engage with. 

Andrew Fallon, Director of Estates, Facilities and Capital Development at Manchester Metropolitan, said: 

“We have reached a significant milestone today with the approval of plans for our new Library by Manchester City Council. This project reinforces Manchester Metropolitan University’s commitment to providing outstanding academic and student experiences. Our continued campus investment makes this possible, providing a world-class, state-of-the-art, digitally enabled estate fit for the 21st century. 

“The new Library will be a striking addition to our estate and the Oxford Road skyline, serving as an iconic All Saints architectural gateway to our University. Once built, it will provide a vibrant learning, research, and collaboration hub, empowering our University community and fostering creativity and engagement for future generations.” 

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

UK Biobank headquarters prepares for construction

New UK Biobank headquarters prepares for construction at Bruntwood SciTech’s Manchester Science Park

In an exciting moment for the future of UK Biobank, this week (Wednesday 7 February) the organisation welcomed the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, to Bruntwood SciTech’s Manchester Science Park to officially mark the future site of UK Biobank’s new £75m centre ready for construction. UK Biobank is the world’s most comprehensive source of health data used for research, providing access to de-identified data to approved researchers worldwide.

The cutting-edge 131,000 sq ft new building, of which UK Biobank will occupy three floors, will include laboratory space and a latest-generation robotic freezer that stores and retrieves UK Biobank’s 20 million biological samples four times faster than before, revolutionising the pace of scientific discovery. It will increase UK Biobank’s capacity, speed and efficiency and is supported by a £127.6m award from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Infrastructure Fund for the next phase of UK Biobank’s development. 

UK Biobank will be located alongside fast-growth life science businesses working in diagnostics, genomics, biotech and precision medicine in the highly specialist purpose-built building, which includes specialist labs and features such as increased vibration resistance, piped gas distribution systems, enhanced cooling and ventilation systems, high-security access and 100GB superfast connectivity. The new facility will be 100% electric and net zero carbon in construction and operation in its shared spaces – one of the first lab spaces in the UK to be so.

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser DBE FRS, Chief Executive of UKRI, said: “UK Biobank is a unique resource, powering research and innovation in the biomedical sciences, creating jobs, and connecting pioneering organisations. UKRI is investing significantly in UK Biobanks’ future. Recent enhancements to UK Biobank, such as the addition of whole genome sequencing data of its half a million participants, are drawing even more scientists to the database, increasing its potential to improve public health. This new facility will help to drive research and innovation on disease prevention and treatment.” 

The Secretary of State was joined by senior representatives from UKRI, the University of Manchester, Bruntwood SciTech, and UK Biobank. To mark this celebration, the Secretary of State completed the planting of the ‘living wall’ hoarding for the site, which will be maintained throughout construction before becoming part of a 7m high, two-storey green wall wrapping around the building to act as a layer of insulation, increase biodiversity and improve air quality. 

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, said: “UK Biobank makes an unparalleled contribution to science across the whole world, by putting invaluable information at researchers’ fingertips. It is already unlocking insights with the potential to detect Parkinson’s sooner, and tackle heart disease. It is without question a jewel in the crown of UK science, and an envy of the world. UK Biobank’s new home at Manchester Science Park – supported with an accelerated £21 million from Government – will mean it has the state-of-the-art facilities it needs, to keep its place at the forefront of our understanding of human health.”

The campus is one of the UK’s most well-established life science and technology hubs, home to 150 startups, scaleups, and globally leading businesses, and is located within the heart of the Oxford Road Corridor innovation district – Europe’s largest clinical academic campus. Supported by the University of Manchester, the new building importantly puts UK Biobank near leading institutions operating across research, academia, business and the NHS. This will provide UK Biobank with new opportunities for collaboration between multi-disciplinary researchers and industry which will stimulate innovation, health impact and economic growth in the Manchester region and beyond. 

Dr Kath Mackay, Chief Scientific Officer for Bruntwood SciTech, said: “The UK’s ambition to be a global leader in life sciences is contingent on the success and continued growth of regional hubs like Manchester Science Park. The arrival of UK Biobank at the campus marks an exciting milestone in its evolution, further cementing its position as one of the UK’s primary locations for innovation, collaboration, and discovery, and where businesses can gain direct access to some of the world’s most pioneering research, and a fully integrated clinical and academic ecosystem.”

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell FRS FMedSci, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester and member of UK Biobank’s Board, said: “Manchester is home to a globally acclaimed science and technology base and I’m really excited for UK Biobank to join this bustling hub of terrific research organisations which work closely with the University of Manchester to push the boundaries of science.” 

The new centre is due to open in 2026 and will house UK Biobank’s biological samples, laboratories, headquarters and around half of its 250 staff. It will dramatically increase the speed at which UK Biobank can supply samples to researchers, allow for the storage of more samples as UK Biobank expands, and be more environmentally efficient. With a new home to store more samples, and generous donations from philanthropists and Government in 2023, UK Biobank can now embark on pilot projects which will provide unrivalled data on human health and disease, such as:

Professor Sir Rory Collins FRS FMedSci, Principal Investigator and CEO of UK Biobank, said: “This new facility is an essential step forward in ensuring that researchers across the globe can more efficiently access our tens of millions of samples to turn them into data which can be used to propel research and innovation. My huge thanks go to UKRI whose generous funds have made the development of this new facility possible.”

This ceremony is particularly timely as it coincides with two UK Biobank milestones: 10,000 peer-reviewed papers have been published using UK Biobank’s data, and 80,000 participants have had full body image scans collected as part of our efforts to complete the world’s largest imaging project of 100,000 volunteers. 

None of this could exist without our amazing participants who give up their time and energy to provide the scientific community with the ultimate toolbox for investigating human health. I offer my eternal thanks to those half a million altruistic people,” added Professor Collins.

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

Manchester spin-out secures €3 million to develop long-duration energy storage

A team of Manchester scientists have secured €3 million investment to bring a lithium-free energy storage solution to the global market.

Long-term energy storage – or energy storage with a duration of at least ten hours – is key to supporting the low-carbon energy transition and security. It will enable electricity generated by renewables to be stored for longer, increasing the efficiency of these environmentally sustainable technologies and reducing dependency baseload imported gas and coal-fired power plants. It will also help drive the multi-billion global market which is, currently, inadequately served with current market-ready technologies.

HalioGEN Power – a spin-out founded by The University of Manchester Professor Robert Dryfe and, with Research Associates Dr Lewis Le Fevre, Dr Andinet Aynalem, and Dr Athanasios Stergiou – has created a technology that has the potential to store energy and efficiently provide power without using critical raw materials.

HalioGEN Power’s team have achieved this by developing a redox-flow battery technology that does not require the use of membrane. By eliminating the need for a membrane, this technology is one of the world’s first long-term storage solutions to negate the use of lithium. Instead, by manipulating the halogen chemistry, the team has been able to create a two-phase system, where the interface between the two phases acts as a membrane.

Unlike current market-established technologies that use lithium metal and can only store energy efficiently for up to four hours, HalioGEN’s redox-flow batteries can store energy for more than ten hours.

In addition, the HalioGEN Power technology requires just one tank and one pump, instead of two for conventional flow batteries. This not only reduces the capital cost of the system, but also reduces the complexity of the battery design.

The new funding is provided by SPRIND, The German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, following the successful creation of a lab-based protype by the HalioGEN Power team. The prototype phase took place within the Henry Royce Institute labs, using an initial €1 million investment, also provided by SPRIND.

The €3 million seed funding will now be used to scale and de-risk this protype over the next 18 months, preparing its route for commercial application.

During this 18-month lab-to-market acceleration period, HalioGEN Power will be based in the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at The University of Manchester. The GEIC specialises in the commercialisation of new technologies using graphene and other 2D materials. As a GEIC partner, HalioGEN Power will be able to access its world-class facilities and resources, supported by a team of application engineers with broad experience in the development of novel products.

Despite its infancy, HalioGEN Power has already received expressions of interest from various organisations from the UK and Europe, including energy suppliers and energy solution providers, keen to apply its technology and invest in future rollouts.

The HalioGEN Power project team will be led by the co-founders, who will each take key roles in the business structure. Dr Lewis Le Fevre will operate as Chief Technology Officer, Dr Andinet Aynalem as Principal Scientist, and Dr Athanasios Stergiou as Senior Scientist, with Professor Robert Dryfe overseeing all activity.

Robert Dryfe, Professor of Physical Chemistry at The University of Manchester and HalioGEN Power’s co-founder explained: “Our goal is to bring to market a new, disruptive energy innovation that helps address global energy transition and security challenges, while also tackling geo-specific issues that threaten the stability of the grid, such as the so-called ‘dark lulls’ in Germany. These lulls see the country go for up to ten days without significant solar and wind energy generation.

Our goal is to bring to market a new, disruptive energy innovation that helps address global energy transition and security challenges.

Robert Dryfe, Professor of Physical Chemistry at The University of Manchester and HalioGEN Power’s co-founder

“Our redox-flow battery technology creates long-term storage to navigate issues like this to maximise the environmental and economic sustainability of renewable energy systems.”

 As part of this development stage, SPRIND will provide financial support and mentorship. SPRIND is part of the German Federal Government and has been set up to support innovators from Germany and neighbouring countries, creating a space where they can take risks. 

In addition, HalioGEN Power will receive ongoing support from the Energy Innovation Agency (the Agency), a unique collaboration between eight partners from the public, private and academic sectors in Greater Manchester (GM), tasked with accelerating carbon emission reductions and transitioning the GM city-region to a carbon-neutral economy by 2038 by connecting innovative low-carbon products and services to end-users

The Agency will support HalioGEN Power in the further development of the business, business plan, and products, from Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 4 to 7, throughout 2024 and 2025, sourcing and introducing potential end-user customers and defining a clear route for the technology from prototype to market-ready.

David Schiele, Director of The Energy Innovation Agency said: “The Agency is thrilled to be working with the HalioGEN Power team, and uniquely placed, to help them accelerate the development of their innovative battery technology and business throughout 2024 and beyond, by offering access to business development support, and end-users, to support the energy transition with innovative products which make greater use of stored energy from clean renewable energy generation”.

HalioGEN Power is the second spin-out co-created by Professor Robert Dryfe. He also co-founded Molymem, a breakthrough water filtration technology, which has already secured £1 million in investment to scale up its technology. 

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

Professor Duncan Ivison appointed President & Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester has appointed Professor Duncan Ivison as its next President and vice-chancellor. He will formally take up his role as President & Vice-Chancellor on 1 August 2024.

He will succeed Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, who steps down after 14 years in the role at the end of July 2024 when her contract concludes. 2024 is also a significant year as it will mark the bicentenary of the University, 200 years from its earliest origins in 1824.

Professor Ivison was appointed after an extensive global search process that began in March this year and has involved widespread stakeholder engagement across the University, including members of staff, Senate, students, alumni, civic leaders, unions and business partners, concluding as planned.

Currently coming to the end of a research sabbatical, Professor Ivison will join from the University of Sydney, where, most recently, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). Previously, he was Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry. He is a Professor of Political Philosophy.

“It is an extraordinary honour to join The University of Manchester as President and vice-chancellor as it enters its third century. The University is a research and teaching powerhouse, but also an institution – like the city itself – with true heart and soul”

Professor Duncan Ivison

Earlier in his career, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, a Lecturer at the University of York, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National University.

He completed a BA in Political Science at McGill University in Montreal, where he grew up, an MSc in Political Theory, and a PhD at the London School of Economics.

Philippa Hird, Chair of the Board of Governors at The University of Manchester, has headed the search process with an Appointment Panel drawn from across the University community, including a senior external higher education advisor, together with the support of international search consultant Saxton Bampfylde.

Philippa Hird said: “After a global search process that has drawn interest from a very strong, high-quality field of diverse candidates, we are delighted to have appointed Professor Duncan Ivison as the next President and vice-chancellor at The University of Manchester. We wanted the right leader to take forward this world-class university into its third century of success and impact against our three core goals: teaching and learning excellence, an internationally renowned research powerhouse and setting new global standards in social responsibility. The Appointment Panel and Board unanimously agreed that Duncan was the outstanding candidate to take on this role.

“Together with a wealth of experience, Duncan brings a thoughtful and engaging approach. He has a clear sense of the future of the University and an appetite to build on all that has been created to date.

“I would also like to thank all those people from across our extended community who have given their time, perspectives and support to assist us in identifying the right person for the most senior role within this world-leading university and prominent institution in Greater Manchester.”

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

Manchester Met awarded Gold in Teaching Excellence Framework

BW

Manchester Metropolitan University has received Gold status in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), meaning it has been rated as an outstanding university for its student experience.

Manchester Metropolitan University has received Gold status in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), meaning it has been rated as an outstanding university for its student experience.

The TEF is a national scheme run every four years by the Office for Students, which encourages and recognises the quality of teaching, the learning environment and outcomes for students, all of which help inform prospective undergraduate students with their choice of where to study.

Bronze, Silver and Gold are the three rating categories signifying increasing degrees of excellence above the minimum quality requirements. The panel review a combination of sources: evidence submitted by universities and their students and numerical indicators TEF produce from national datasets such as the National Student Survey.

The TEF has an overall rating and a rating for each of the two aspects assessed in the exercise: the student experience, which covers teaching the whole wraparound support given to students, and student outcomes, which covers retention, progression and graduate outcomes.

Manchester Met secured Gold overall, with Gold for student experience and Silver for student outcomes.

Professor Andy Dainty, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Manchester Met, said: “We are delighted to have achieved an overall Gold outcome. This is a fantastic result for a University of our size and diversity, and for this assessment to conclude that our student experience is outstanding is testament to the hard work of everyone at the University.

“The rating is another major recognition for the excellent education we deliver, coming after this year’s brilliant NSS results which ranked us as 30th in the UK.

“This outcome demonstrates what we can achieve working together and I know through drive and ambition we can to build on this great success.”

The outcomes from TEF 2023 will last for four years from December 2023 until August 2027.

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

£11,000 worth of books donated to local children this Christmas

Circle Square-based brand and communications agency, Agent, iannounce that its annual All You Read is Love campaign has so far donated £11,000 worth of books to children in the North West.

Now in its fourth year, this impressive achievement exceeds the initial goal of £10,000, making this year’s campaign the most successful to date.

Agent, in partnership with global book distributor Publiship, launched the All You Read is Love campaign with the objective of countering the impact of reduced book budgets on young people in the North West. The campaign aims to spread the joy of reading and improve literacy levels among children facing socio-economic challenges.

Working closely with clients and partners, Agent has created a cherished tradition with All You Read is Love. This year, in collaboration with Liverpool-based Publiship, the agency called upon individuals across the region to participate by donating new or excellently conditioned children’s books at their Manchester and Liverpool Studios. These books will be distributed to charities and community groups working with children in the North West region.

The impact of the campaign has been substantial. Last year, Agent gifted over £8,000 worth of diverse books to more than 1,000 young people, including works by renowned authors, emerging talents, and voices from BAME and LGBTQ+ communities. In support of this year’s campaign, Publiship rallied numerous publishers to donate hundreds of books, demonstrating their commitment to making a positive difference.

Paul Corcoran, CEO and founder of Agent, expressed his excitement, stating, “We started this campaign aiming to inspire a love for reading among young minds and provide them with the tools to explore new worlds through literature. 

“Thanks to the generosity and support of our valued partners and the wider community, we have not only achieved but exceeded our ambitious goal. We are hugely grateful to everyone that’s supported the campaign – and there’s still time to get involved!” 

Mark Bartlett, ESG Manager at Publiship, said: “We are incredibly proud to partner with Agent for ‘All You Read is Love’. It’s heart-warming to know that through this campaign, we are instilling a love for reading and improving literacy levels among young individuals facing challenges. We are grateful to everyone who has supported this initiative and there’s no better time to get involved and make a difference.”

Agent continues to accept donations of new or excellently conditioned children’s books to further extend the impact of All You Read is Love. Those wishing to take part in the campaign can donate books to both its Liverpool studio and Manchester studio at Circle Square.

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

Greater Manchester Investment Zone targets growth and jobs in advanced manufacturing sector

In this week’s Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt announced a new Investment Zone for Greater Manchester which is expected to generate 32,000 jobs and leverage £1.1 billion of private sector investment.

The Investment Zone will provide £160 million in public funding over 10 years to support initiatives and interventions agreed between Greater Manchester and Government, which will include new research and innovation, sector-focussed skills programmes, local infrastructure enhancements, and targeted business support.

The package will support the Oxford Road Corridor’s established strengths including the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and ID Manchester, with a focus on the advanced materials and manufacturing sector. As well as building on longer-term ambitions to be able to scale up and deploy innovations in growth businesses.

Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Lead for Economy, Business, and Inclusive Growth, said: “Greater Manchester has an attractive proposition, with world-leading advanced manufacturing and materials research at our universities, a strong skills base, and an existing ecosystem of innovative companies.

“The Investment Zone will build on that cluster, linking and investing in different sites across the city-region, and helping us translate research and development and new discoveries into business growth.”

Professor Richard Jones, Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement at The University of Manchester, said: “The University of Manchester has been at the forefront of research in advanced materials and manufacturing, from the industrial revolution to the discovery of graphene, and we have a strong culture of innovation which builds on that research to create economic benefit. This announcement gives further impetus to the work we do with our partners in business and the city-region, to improve people’s lives through economic growth and improved productivity throughout Greater Manchester.”

Professor Nick Brook, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “This is an exciting development for Manchester and the city, building on its existing strengths and nurturing new opportunities in advanced materials and manufacturing.

“We have a rich history in supporting innovation and business growth across the region, and the Investment Zone is a natural next step for the city region and the University in ensuring Manchester remains at the forefront of research and development – and creating new job opportunities.”

Speaking on behalf of ID Manchester, a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and The University of Manchester, John Holden, Associate Vice-President at The University of Manchester, said: “We’re delighted that ID Manchester will be part of the Greater Manchester Investment Zone plans to put the region at the forefront of advanced materials and manufacturing innovation in the UK and globally. The ecosystem we’re building at ID Manchester will leverage The University of Manchester’s world-class R&D strengths to help scale and commercialise new ideas, driving new jobs across the city region in future-facing industries. We look forward to working closely with our neighbouring centres of innovation in Greater Manchester to create valuable new opportunities for local residents and businesses across the North.”

Advanced Materials

Manchester is leading the 2D revolution and home to the UK’s leading research and innovation association of advanced materials.

Yourgene Health labs
Health & Life Sciences

Oxford Road Corridor is home to one of the largest clinical academic campuses in Europe, attracting clinicians, students and researchers from around the world.

Digital & Tech

The availability of digital talent generated by the two universities on the Oxford Road Corridor is a major factor in the city region’s success in attracting inward investment and growing new digital firms.

Stand up! March on! Reclaim The Night

This year’s Reclaim The Night takes place on Wednesday 29th of November and will see students and the wider community march from Oxford Road to Deansgate. Aisha Akram, Wellbeing & Liberation Officer at The University of Manchester Students’ Union, tells us about this year’s theme, ‘Convince Me Not’.

The heartbeat of the Reclaim The Night campaign is the march itself, which this year takes place on Wednesday 29th of November from the Students’ Union on Oxford Road to a rally at Great Northern on Deansgate. It’s a powerful event that gathers people from all walks of life, uniting under the banner of safety and equality. The march serves as a megaphone, projecting the campaign’s message across the community.

The movement also encompasses other tactics, such as power mapping and lobbying, to create a comprehensive impact. The objective is clear: to ensure that every participant understands the purpose behind their steps. The campaign urges students to know precisely why they are marching – for the safety of women, girls, and marginalised genders. The campaign seeks to foster a deep connection between the participants and the cause they champion through education and engagement.

This year’s Reclaim The Night focuses on lobbying to tackle the still incredibly stigmatised issue of sexual coercion. Many are unaware of its status as a reportable crime. With so many different types of coercion, from harassment to guilt-tripping, lying to fear and intimidation, and how power imbalances can come into play, much of it goes unchecked and unchallenged. The march calls for all to recognise a greater need for signposting and access to support services, improvements to the reporting process, and unity across local charities, businesses and universities to amplify the message condemning this behaviour across all corners of society. By transforming this movement from a University of Manchester campaign into a community-wide endeavour, we want to multiply our impact.

Activist with megaphone at Reclaim The Night

The heart of this year’s campaign beats for more than just the University of Manchester – it beats for all Manchester universities and communities. This campaign seeks to weave a tapestry of collaboration that transcends institutions and embraces the community as a whole. The involvement of local charities and businesses becomes a catalyst, propelling the message of safety and empowerment into every nook and cranny.

This isn’t just about raising awareness but building a movement that transcends boundaries. Every effort is focused on ensuring that the message of safety for women, girls, and marginalised genders saturates every level of society. It’s not just about awareness; it’s about driving meaningful change.

The Reclaim The Night campaign is an open invitation to be part of a movement that seeks to rewrite the narrative of safety and empowerment. It’s a call to action that resonates with individuals who believe in equality and security for all. You can contribute by participating in the march, engaging in discussions, and supporting the campaign’s initiatives. By joining this movement, you become a catalyst for change, a force that dismantles fear and paves the way for a brighter, safer future.

The Reclaim The Night campaign led by the University of Manchester Students’ Union is more than just a single event.

Through the march, lobbying efforts, and community involvement, it seeks to ingrain its message in the collective consciousness. It is an opportunity to be part of a movement that dares to challenge norms and create a world where safety is a birthright, not a privilege.

Stand up, march on, and reclaim the night for everyone.

Aisha Akram,
Wellbeing & Liberation Officer
University of Manchester Students’ Union

Food and Drink on Oxford Road

The food and drink in Manchester is some of the best in the UK with many of the finest offerings found here on the Oxford Road Corridor.

A golden mummy from Manchester Museum one of the culture offerings on Oxford Road
Culture

A vibrant nightlife and home to many of the city’s most iconic music venues, theatre spots and high-end cultural offerings such as the Whitworth, HOME and RNCM.

HOME Director & CEO, Dave Moutrey, to step down after 26 years

Dave Moutrey OBE will be stepping down from the role of Director and CEO at HOME, following 26 years leading Greater Manchester Arts Centre Ltd, trading first as Cornerhouse, and as HOME since 2015.

In this role, he conceived and led the merger of Cornerhouse and Library Theatre Company and the £25m capital project to create HOME, attracting almost one million visits yearly since it opened.

Under his leadership, HOME has established itself as a significant contributor to the arts sector in Greater Manchester, nationally and internationally. With work spanning film, theatre and visual arts, alongside a substantial programme of artist development and community engagement, Dave has worked with the team to lead and oversee the delivery of a wide range of artistic programmes and major artistic projects.

In this role, he has championed ambitious new initiatives and projects at HOME, including work currently underway on the HOME Arches, which are due to open in 2024. HOME Arches is a £3.5m project to create new space for artists to nurture, attract and retain creative talent in Manchester.

Moutrey advocated the importance of culture around the Corridor for over 15 years, serving two terms as an Oxford Road Corridor board member between 2009-2014 and 2017-2022. He chaired the Culture on the Corridor group where he was central to bringing cultural partners together and was a crucial figure in the realisation of the Corridor of Light festival in 2021.

Since 2018, Moutrey has been on a part-time secondment with Manchester City Council as Director of Culture and Creative Industries. When he leaves HOME, he will move into this role full-time, leading the implementation, embedding and delivery of the City’s new Cultural Strategy, currently being co-created with residents and the cultural sector and due to be published in early 2024.

Dave Moutrey at HOME Theatre
Drew Forsyth

Dave Moutrey said: ‘It will be incredibly hard to leave such a great team of people, and our amazing venue, however the timing feels right to move on. I am excited about the opportunity the new Cultural Strategy presents for Manchester, and as HOME begins to focus on plans for 2026 and beyond, I believe that the person who develops the strategy to take the organisation forward should be the person who is there to deliver it.

‘I am enormously proud of the exciting and diverse programme at HOME, the focus we have on delivering for our audiences, and working with our communities. I am so grateful to the artists and partners I have had the pleasure of working with over the years – their creativity and passion has been inspirational.

‘Mostly I am proud of the team and the talent we have at HOME. I know they will continue to do incredible work and welcome audiences and artists with enthusiasm, warmth and humour.

‘My sincere thanks go to everyone who has supported HOME, who has shared in our vision, and who has been on this journey with me. It has been an immense privilege.’

Kathryn Jacobs, Chair of HOME’s Board of Trustees said: ‘The news about Dave Moutrey leaving HOME is a time for celebration and reflection. Celebration of all that he has achieved during his tenure at GMAC, Cornerhouse and HOME, as well as the prospect of having one of the leading figures in the arts – locally, nationally, and internationally – embedding culture, and the role and promotion of the creative arts, even more firmly into the heart of our city.

‘We also want to reflect on everything Dave has achieved at HOME, where his vision has enabled us to showcase and champion multiple art forms and who has turned HOME into a place where creative and administrative talents grow and thrive, going on to create and contribute to new works and new challenges.

‘As a Board, it’s been an enormous pleasure to work alongside him and for us to plan the future of HOME. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude. The team at HOME – present and past – hold him in the highest regard, and the love and respect that he commands is a testament to his leadership, wisdom and the kindness he has always demonstrated. He leaves us with a fabulously talented team, focused on the future and the exciting new work that we have planned – which he will always be a part of, as the man who made HOME possible. His is in our DNA and we celebrate our bond with him and wish him every success in his new role.’

Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, Deputy Leader for Manchester City Council, said: ‘Manchester already has a global reputation for the arts and culture with a raft of incredible world-class venues. Through our new ten-year plan, with Dave at the helm, we want to go even further to harness the power we know the arts have to change and improve lives.  

‘Dave has been a huge figure in the cultural landscape of Manchester for many years and has been instrumental in our approach to culture in the city since 2018. There are few people who understand the symbiotic relationship between the city, our residents and the arts.’

Dave will officially step down at the end of March 2024. Plans for his succession will be released by HOME’s Board of Trustees in December.

HOME Arches
HOME Arches

Situated between HOME and Whitworth Street West, the new space will be a resource for artists of all ages, disciplines and career stages.

Back of Engels statue at First Street Manchester
First Street

First Street is a vibrant neighbourhood between Oxford Road and Deansgate, it is home to a number of businesses and is a popular spot for food, drink and culture.

Library development plans unveiled by Manchester Metropolitan University

Plans to develop an impressive new campus library in the heart of the city have been unveiled by Manchester Metropolitan University.

Proposals for the landmark development would see the current library at All Saints on Oxford Road replaced with a modern and dynamic learning environment that places students and their learning at its core.

The University has submitted a planning application for the visionary library which will help Manchester to retain its status as a choice destination for students.

The project will create a library fit for the 21st century and is a central part of the University’s strategy to deliver excellent education for its students, and research that makes a difference to the community and world.

The iconic new building would feature digitally enabled teaching and research facilities to enhance students’ data science and analytical skills, flexible break-out spaces to support collaboration and nurture ideas, and a new home for the Manchester Poetry Library, the North West’s first public poetry library. It will also house a new gallery and event spaces designed for both public and University use.

Professor Karen Moore, Chief Operating Officer at Manchester Met, said: “As an ambitious University, we are committed to providing a truly modern campus here in the city centre for our students, colleagues and the community.

“The library plans demonstrate our continued commitment to invest in impactful research and outstanding education, adding to the exceptional facilities and extensive redevelopment that has taken place across our campus over recent years. The new library will reimagine what a university library can offer and will build on Manchester Metropolitan University’s rich 200-year history of education and research.”

Rachel Beckett, Director of Library and Cultural Services at Manchester Met, added: “Our new library will be welcoming and inclusive, fostering community and belonging. It will draw people in and stimulate the creation, discovery and sharing of knowledge, collaboration and experimentation. It’s a tremendously exciting opportunity to transform the campus experience.”

‘As an ambitious University, we are committed to providing a truly modern campus here in the city centre for our students, colleagues and the community’

Professor Karen Moore, Chief Operating Officer

Architects Hawkins\Brown and Schmidt Hammer Lassen have been commissioned to design the new ionic building and visionary space which will create a new gateway to the University.

Christopher Seviour, Partner at Hawkins\Brown, said: “We were very conscious of designing a ‘living library’ where the book collection is only one of many services offered so that it gives students a reason to stay on campus and make the most out of their university experience. We have enjoyed collaborating with Schmidt Hammer Lassen to fuse the best of Mancunian and Scandinavian design sensibilities.”

Elif Tinaztepe, Principal Partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen, added: “We reimagine the future library for Manchester Met as a dynamic landscape for making, reflecting, and innovating – a truly inclusive cultural space where students, academia and the city are invited to gather around shared interests to address the issues of the future.

“We wanted the building to communicate a generosity of spirit. Spaces of different character and identity flow naturally into one another, inviting the students to explore and curate their own experience on each visit. Working with the University, exploring Manchester Met’s unique place in the wider realm of academic libraries and how this might be reflected in the design has been a truly inspiring process.”

If the planning application is approved, work will start in summer 2024 with full completion by 2028.

Castlefield Gallery at 40

Jeffrey Knopf, ‘A Show of Hands’, glass and 3D printed plastic, 2022. Courtesy of the artist

Next year, Castlefield Gallery will celebrate its 40th anniversary and is looking to its past in order to think about the present, and what the future might hold.

When Castlefield Gallery opened in 1984, it was the first dedicated contemporary art space in Manchester and only the second in the UK outside of London. The gallery was founded by MASA (Manchester Artists Studio Association): a group of former Manchester Polytechnic students who felt they weren’t seeing the artists they wanted to in Manchester and decided to change that. They were also keen to support artists based in the North West region. For the last 39 years, we have been working with both artists based in the region and from the wider world in order to explore what it means to make the art of our time.

The first articles written about the gallery acknowledge that contemporary art spaces can be daunting places to visit, but that knowledgeable, welcoming staff and a programme of talks and workshops could combat that. Today, we deliver a mixture of in-person and online events, exhibitions and resources that offer audiences different ways to engage with what we do – and whenever you visit us you will still be greeted by someone more than happy to talk about what we have on. In an article for The Artful Reporter curator Jill Morgan praised Sheila Seal (the first person to take on the role of ‘Gallery Organiser’) and other MASA members for having a work ethic that went against ‘…the romantic popular view of the artist as an isolated genius or a privileged amateur dabbler’ (April, 1984). A sentiment still close to our hearts today. We believe the gallery is a place where people can come to experience the world differently, not escape from it.

Castlefield Gallery at 40. Flyer for the Gary Wragg exhibition at Castlefield Gallery, 1984
Flyer for the Gary Wragg exhibition at Castlefield Gallery, 1984

Our ambition also continues to be for Manchester to be a place where artists can live and work and have international careers. This sees us working closely with artists, often over long periods of time to support the development of their practice. This autumn, the gallery will be taken over by new sculptures, built in situ, by Omid Asadi (Oct 15 2023 – Jan 21 2024), inspired by the struggle to find a sense of belonging in a fast-changing world where his former family homes have been lost to both war and so-called development. Asadi is an artist we have worked with over several years, initially as a Manchester School of Art Mentee then through group exhibitions, events, academic research projects and art fairs, leading to this – his first major UK solo show.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the gallery’s first exhibition (John Hoyland, Recent Paintings, March – April, 1984) we are excited to be welcoming back some of the large-scale abstract paintings that exemplify the works shown in that first year of the gallery programme. Including works by John Hoyland, Sarah Feinmann, Tricia Gillman and Gary Wragg, which will be shown alongside later works by those artists and four more painters who we have gotten to know more recently: Robin Megannity, Azraa Motala, Jamie Kirk and Katie Tomlinson. Whether you are a committed painting enthusiast or simply curious about what painting can do, this exhibition will deliver a rich dialogue around the past, present and future of painting. This dialogue also has wider implications for thinking about individual expression, the power of imagery and the politics of representation.

The artful reporter, April 1984. Castlefield Gallery at 40.
Castlefield Gallery in The Artful Reporter, April 1984

In the summer of next year, we will have a group show of work by Jeffrey Knopf (a former Salford Scholar: a graduate mentee scheme we run with the University of Salford), Theo Simpson and Hope Strickland (Jul – Sep 2024). A sculptor, a photographer and a filmmaker who are committed to their respective disciplines but also keen to work with them in expanded and none traditional ways. With 3D-printed manipulated scans of ancient artefacts, materials that relate to the history of the British economy and landscape, archival footage and historic documentation these artists investigate our deep and complex relationships with the past, present and future. The exhibition will be an opportunity for us to acknowledge that history isn’t the same for everyone; that amongst the artists we work with and the people that visit us, the past is felt and experienced differently.

Also in those first articles written about the gallery, there is repeated mention of the difficult political and financial context of the 1980s, which sounds disappointingly similar to the current situation.

In February next year, Rowland Hill will transform the gallery into an immersive nightclub-esque installation. Among other things this solo exhibition will reference Hill’s love of 90’s Euphoria and the strange sense of melancholy she finds, particularly in the lyrics, of that music genre. A sense of melancholy perhaps intensified by the hindsight of the intervening years. I remember the popular feeling in the 90s that we had arrived, that a much better more equal world was just around the corner. Whether deeply personal, overtly political or focused on more material artistic development it is thanks to the artists I have worked with at Castlefield Gallery that I can no longer see that 90s belief without recognising the privilege and naivety that was part of it. However, if we are to get out of the political feedback loop of the present, we will need to rekindle some of that 90s spirit and the spirit MASA had a decade before, all be it informed by multiple other pasts and presents. Perhaps as we look back over the last 40 years, Castlefield Gallery and the work of those mentioned above is also a good place to start bringing about the future.


Matthew Pendergast
Curator and Deputy Director

exhibition Omid Asadi
Castlefield Gallery | 15 October 2023 – 21 January 2024

The first major UK solo exhibition by Omid Asad features new large-scale sculptural work exploring loss, memory and belonging.

An audeince gathers outside Castlefield Gallery on a sunny day
Castlefield Gallery

An innovative contemporary art gallery committed to supporting artists’ careers and talent development across Greater Manchester, the North West and beyond.

External shot of The Whitworth Where you will find The Whitworth Café
Galleries & Museums

Some of the best Galleries & Museums in Manchester are here on Oxford Road Corridor. Explore a diverse programme for all cultural enthusiasts.

This article was originally published in the new Oxford Road Corridor zine. The autumn edition is available to pick up for free from spaces around Oxford Road. You can view it online here too.

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Bruntwood SciTech and Greater Manchester Pension Fund invest half a billion into the UK’s science, tech & innovation economy.

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Bruntwood SciTech, the UK’s leading specialist property provider, founded by Legal & General and Bruntwood in 2018 to support the growth of the life science and tech sectors, has secured £500 million of additional investment and welcomed the UK’s largest local authority pension fund, Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), to the partnership.

GMPF is the first local government pension scheme to make a direct and active investment into a UK-wide science, tech and innovation specialist property platform. The deal demonstrates the role that such funds can play in regenerating the UK’s towns and cities; helping to create highly-skilled jobs, increase productivity and drive wage growth, while supporting the UK’s target to become a global science and technology superpower by 2030.

Now the largest dedicated property platform serving the UK’s innovation economy, Bruntwood SciTech aims to create a £5 billion UK-wide portfolio that can support 2,600 high-growth businesses by 2032. The £500 million of new equity sees GMPF inject £150 million, alongside a significant increase in investment from existing shareholders, Legal & General and Bruntwood, through cash and asset transfer.

The new capital will be used to expand and redevelop existing science and technology campuses and city centre innovation hubs, delivering much-needed additional world-leading lab and office space in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow and Cambridge, across a secured 3.6m sq ft development pipeline. The investment will also enable Bruntwood SciTech to enter additional R&D-intensive regional cities.

“We have long admired Bruntwood SciTech and seen its impact on our doorstep in Manchester, not least in leveraging the strength of its universities to create innovation districts with a genuine global reputation that are capable of attracting companies like Roku and Qiagen to the city”

Cllr Gerald Cooney, Chair of the GMPF Pension Fund



Critically, Bruntwood SciTech provides the connective tissue between world-leading research universities, large hospital NHS Trusts, strong civic regional leadership, and high-growth enterprise. Already, it has more than £1.5bn in assets across nine campus locations and 31 city centre innovation hubs, offering 4.8m sq ft of world-class specialist workspace, support, and like-minded communities for 1,100 high-growth start-ups, scale-ups, and global businesses.

Over the last five years, Bruntwood SciTech, which began with a portfolio of 1.3m sq ft, has proven its ability to create places that nurture and grow innovation-based businesses, especially those working within the life science and tech sectors. Several developments are already underway that will support the growth of city-wide like-minded ecosystems for AI, medtech, diagnostics, genomics, fintech, edtech and digital health businesses. This includes Citylabs 4.0 on the Oxford Road Corridor – a health innovation and precision medicine hub, Birmingham’s first truly smart building Enterprise Wharf, and a new dedicated digital and tech hub at Glasgow’s Met Tower. With the UK still behind some of its global competitors in providing the necessary volume of specialist infrastructure for the science and technology sector to scale, offer more highly skilled jobs, and contribute an even greater economic return, Bruntwood SciTech has a clear focus on providing the UK’s regional cities with the capacity they need to support future growth.

Through its new structure, Bruntwood SciTech has enabled other UK local authority pension funds to co-invest efficiently and on an asset-by-asset basis, so that long-term, patient capital can play a crucial role in the growth of the domestic innovation sector. Discussions are already underway with a number of other major local authority-linked funds for additional capital investment.

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Chris Oglesby, Executive Chair of Bruntwood SciTech and CEO of Bruntwood, said: “In GMPF we have found a partner who shares mutual strategic vision, values, cultural alignment and passion for the key sectors of the UK economy which have the biggest potential for growth. Bruntwood, Legal & General and GMPF are each committed to creating thriving cities, are deeply rooted in the places in which we invest, and are focussed on the application of long-term, patient capital to support the UK’s economy, with a particular focus on its regional cities.

“GMPF’s investment, alongside the additional capital from Legal & General and assets from Bruntwood, will elevate the potential of Bruntwood SciTech even further, accelerate the delivery of our expansion pipeline, and maintain our market-leading position as the workspace provider of choice for innovation-led businesses. We will also be able to further support the delivery of strategic city visions and innovation strategies in the UK’s fastest-growing regional cities.”

Cllr Gerald Cooney, Chair of the GMPF Pension Fund added: “We have long admired Bruntwood SciTech and seen its impact on our doorstep in Manchester, not least in leveraging the strength of its universities to create innovation districts with a genuine global reputation that are capable of attracting companies like Roku and Qiagen to the city.

“We’re investing from society for society by deploying our capital to benefit the UK’s regional economies for the long-term, helping develop the innovation infrastructure they need in order to scale in world-leading workspaces and supporting them to attract the best, and most highly skilled talent, enter new markets, and be supported in accessing new funds.

“We’re excited about how we can now help to bring forward Bruntwood SciTech’s pipeline of transformational, world-class developments and for a future in which we spread its impact even more so in its existing cities, and into new ones.”

Kate Lawlor, CEO for Bruntwood SciTech commented: “We’ve done some amazing things over the last five years by partnering with city regions on their investment strategies and helping create the places they need to unlock them. “The investment from GMPF demonstrates the strong impact and proposition Bruntwood SciTech has developed, and we are excited to bring in a like-minded third-party investor to support the key priority sectors for the UK in our mission to expand the portfolio further. “The UK’s real estate market is in a challenging period, but this deal, which will stand out as one of the most significant transactions this year, is about three organisations aligned in both their visions and commitment to investing for the long-term. It underlines our absolute confidence in our business model and proposition’s success, and we can now realise it at scale across more locations.

Since Bruntwood SciTech was created in 2018 it has grown Alderley Park into the UK’s largest single site life science campus and is home to major institutions including the Medicines Discovery Catapult. In Manchester, it has accelerated progress with campuses developed at Circle Square, Citylabs, and Manchester Science Park where the latest development will become the new HQ for UK Biobank. It has also been appointed JV partner in the £1.7bn trailblazing new city centre innovation district ID Manchester by The University of Manchester. It acquired and more than doubled its Innovation Birmingham campus – creating Birmingham’s first truly smart building and the West Midlands largest dedicated tech community. It is also underway with the first phase of the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. In the past 12 months in Cambridge it acquired and submitted a £250m masterplan for Melbourn Science Park and in Glasgow, adjacent to Strathclyde University, acquired its first property in Scotland to transform Glasgow’s iconic Met Tower into a new tech hub. In Liverpool, it is a shareholder in Sciontec, the owners of Liverpool Science Park, working alongside Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool and Liverpool City Council, where it has plans to expand its holdings in Sciontec to develop new lab and office buildings in the City’s Knowledge Quarter (KQ Liverpool), whilst in Leeds it has created the city’s ‘home for tech’, Platform. GMPF was selected following a competitive process for new equity funding partners that saw active discussions with UK and global institutional investors. The acquisition of Bruntwood’s city centre assets by Bruntwood SciTech comes as a response to the changing needs of innovation-led businesses post-pandemic.

This will enable specialist workspaces and communities to be created within both city centres and at campuses located next to universities and hospitals, recognising that businesses are looking to leverage ecosystems on a city-wide basis instead of within defined innovation districts. Bruntwood will separately retain a £260m portfolio of workspaces, primarily located in suburban town centres, alongside a £100m portfolio of town centre regeneration projects with Trafford and Bury Councils. This part of the business will focus on creating locally distinctive, sustainable, culturally rich and socially responsible communities. It will aim to make further acquisitions in the towns surrounding the cities in which Bruntwood SciTech operates and work to develop a symbiotic relationship between the innovation economies of the cities and their surrounding towns.

Legal & General invests in asset classes that create long-term, secure income streams, to help meet its own annuity commitments, and for third party investors, whilst tackling some of the major social, environmental and economic issues society is facing. It now has extensive experience in investing in life science, technology and innovation, as strategic partner of choice to leading universities, including the University of Manchester, University of Oxford (through the Oxford University Development Partnership), the University of Cambridge and Newcastle University. It is also building partnerships in the US through Ancora L&G, which acquires and develops real estate to serve high-growth science, technology, and innovation tenants in partnership with and proximate to leading US anchor institutions.

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