The University of Manchester
The University of Manchester (UoM) enjoys a long and successful relationship with Daresbury SIC and is increasingly engaged with the Daresbury Innovation Centre and its tenant companies. Knowledge and technology transfer to the marketplace is a key activity of the university and it values its partnership with Daresbury SIC.
The university is a key partner in the Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology, along with NWDA, STFC and the Universities of Lancaster and Liverpool. The School of Physics and Astronomy has so far recruited two of the full complement of four UoM accelerator physicists that will work in the institute and the director of the institute, Professor Swapan Chattopadhyay, holds a joint appointment between the three universities.
UoM is also playing a key role in the development of the UK’s 4th Generation Light Source Project (4GLS). This is a world-leading project for the delivery of ultra-bright, ultra-short pulses of light, currently in its prototyping phase. The university is a co-holder of a £2.9 million NWSF grant supporting science exploitation of this prototype phase.
After winning the first ever EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Challenge Award in 2006, the university received £500k to fund a range of projects with business and industry to encourage further take-up of knowledge and technology within the Northwest. For details see the University’s Knowledge Transfer site.
Facts and Figures
The University of Manchester is the largest single-site higher education institution in the UK (the Open University only being larger in terms of student numbers), and has four faculties, under which there are 24 academic schools and hundreds of specialist research groups undertaking pioneering cross-disciplinary teaching and research of world-wide significance.
The university has internationally distinguished centres of research and innovation across a broad spread of disciplines and had a total expenditure on research of £345 million in 2005/06. Much of this research is in partnership with business and industry, and it has formally established long-term strategic partnerships with a number of multinationals including BP, IBM, AstraZeneca, EdF and British Energy. Over 80% of its academic staff work in schools rated 5 or 5* in the last Research Assessment Exercise (2001), which acknowledges the high international standing of our work.
In business
The University has a portfolio of 42 active spin-out companies, one of which, Epistem, is listed and has a market value of £11M. The university supports more than 3,000 jobs from new company formations linked to it.