A keynote grounded in friendship and care

The day opened with a thoughtful and engaging keynote from Prof Sarah Marie Hall and Sally Bonnie, FRSA-Founder and Director of Inspiring Futures Partnership CIC, who shared their journey of working together over the past eight years. Their talk moved beyond traditional academic narratives, offering instead a story of care, friendship and collaboration.

Using the metaphor of weaving, they illustrated how relationships are not simply part of research practice, they are what holds it together. Threads of trust, care and shared experience ran throughout their reflections, setting a powerful tone for the rest of the day.

Getting hands-on with methods

Across the programme, participants had the chance to immerse themselves in a wide range of interactive and practice-based workshops, alongside lightning talks and poster presentations (including but not limited to sessions on drawing research, ethical practices in multiligual research, lived experience and co-production, more than human methods and Lego serious play). Attendees also had the opportunity to experience the University’s flagship Data Visualisation Observatory.

Interdisciplinary moments of exchange, their unplanned and conversational nature, and the way in which discussions extended well before the sessions themselves are a defining feature of the Methods Fair.

Bringing people together

One of the most distinctive aspects of the day was the bringing together of people who might not otherwise cross paths. This year’s event included community participants, creating a genuinely inclusive and collaborative environment.

Inspire Women Oldham’s collaboration on the zine-making workshop captured the spirit of the day: opening up research methods as a shared space for learning, creativity and connection.

As Professor Emma Banister, Director of Methods@91ֱ��, reflects:

Leaving inspired

Our hope is that the Methods Fair can create a space where people feel able to experiment, connect and think differently about research. An aim that was not lost on this attendee who reported feeling: “Inspired, refreshed and rejuvenated to try out new methods and build them into my research design."

recently delivered a joint lecture hosted by the and , sharing insights from more than 15 years of research behind his upcoming book on gender equality and economic growth. Focusing on developing economies, the book uses overlapping generations models to examine the relationship between economic forces, gender inequality and growth, and the role public policy plays in shaping those outcomes.

The event was chaired by Vice-President for Research , with Professor , Head of Alliance 91ֱ�� Business School, contributing to the Q&A moderation. In her introduction, Professor Fagan highlighted the breadth of the University’s work on gender equality through centres including the Global Development Institute and the Work and Equalities Institute. She also emphasised the wider relevance of Professor Agénor’s research, noting that it was particularly fitting for the lecture to bring together two flagship University series: the Arthur Lewis lecture series, which celebrates the economist’s pioneering work on development, and the Vital Topics lectures, which explore the major issues shaping the world today. The full lecture is available to watch in the embedded video below.

Professor Agénor began by placing the book in a broader context through frameworks such as the and . He showed how economic modelling can help identify the structural challenges that continue to shape gender inequality.

He highlighted two core analytical contributions from the book. First, he suggested that increasing penalties for firms that violate equal pay laws can, in some cases, worsen the gender pay gap. Rather than changing behaviour, companies may pass those costs on to female employees, challenging conventional approaches and prompting a reconsideration of enforcement strategies.

Second, he explored the misallocation of female talent in innovation-driven sectors, arguing that closing pay gaps alone is not enough to maximise economic growth. Instead, targeted policies are needed to ensure high-ability women can contribute in areas where their skills can drive innovation and progress.

The Q&A session brought practical policy issues to the forefront, including the role of childcare support in enabling women’s participation in the workforce and wider questions around women’s agency in advancing gender equality. The discussion also highlighted opportunities to explore connections between emerging and developed economies through global supply chains, pointing to potential directions for future research.

Professor Fagan closed the lecture by encouraging attendees to reflect on how they might advance gender equality in their own professional and personal lives. The event underlined the continuing importance of rigorous research and effective policymaking in addressing one of the defining economic and social challenges of our time.

Watch the full lecture in the embedded video:

Delivered from 18–22 May, the course brought together 18 participants from 9 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America, reflecting its global reach and reputation in the field of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy.

Over five days, participants explored key approaches to evaluating science and innovation policies, combining conceptual insights with practical application. The programme covered areas including theory of change, evaluation design, quantitative and qualitative methods, and emerging topics such as artificial intelligence in science policy.

The course was led by Kate Barker, with teaching contributions from leading experts in the field, including Professor Erik Arnold, Dr Effie Amanatidou, Professor Jakob Edler, Professor Maria Nedeva, Professor Raquel Ortega-Argilés and Professor John Rigby.

Participants also benefitted from guest sessions delivered by guest speakers including James Phipps (Innovation Growth Lab), Cristina Rosemberg Montes and Diogo Machado (Technopolis), Mike Thelwall (University of Sheffield) and Richard Waggott (Greater 91ֱ�� Combined Authority), offering insights into how evaluation is used in real-world policy settings.

A core feature of the course was its focus on applied learning. Participants worked in groups throughout the week to develop and present evaluation approaches to real-world policy challenges, drawing on the tools and frameworks introduced during the programme.

The diverse cohort included representatives from universities, research funding organisations, government bodies and innovation agencies, fostering exchange across different policy contexts and national systems. Participating organisations included the Japan Science and Technology Agency, SGInnovate, the Research Council of Finland and several UK-based institutions.

The course forms part of MIOIR’s professional development activities, which aim to strengthen evaluation capacity and support evidence-informed policymaking internationally.

To find out more about MIoIR’s executive education and training opportunities, contact Deborah Cox, Institute Manager, or .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The visit also included a roundtable discussion bringing together academic experts and policymakers. They examined the relationship between music, culture, technology, and 91ֱ��’s creative heritage; the impact of AI and other technologies on the creative industries and mechanisms to protect the rights and livelihoods of creative practitioners. 

This visit was part of Creative 91ֱ��’s ongoing commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and critical debate at the intersection of culture, technology, and society.

The symposium celebrated the variety ways in which collaborative approaches allow developing new products, services and experiences while addressing social and technological challenges. The discussions highlighted the growing importance of participatory innovation in enabling more inclusive and responsive creative practice.

Creative industries are increasingly experimenting with the co-creation approaches, including emerging technological solutions such as immersive media and generative AI, as well as diverse stakeholders. The symposium provided a space to reflect on these developments, derive some common insights, and explore their implications for research and practice.

The event was chaired and moderated by Dr Marianna Rolbina and Dr Tonny Kukeera (University of Manchester).

Programme highlights

The symposium featured lightning talks, a panel discussion and facilitated group sessions, bringing together academic and industry perspectives on co-creation in practice.

The participants explored current best practices, common barriers to implementation, and how co-creation can be scaled across different contexts. Discussions also highlighted the importance of trust, planning, shared ownership and effective collaboration between academia, industry and creative communities.

In the afternoon, participants took part in group discussions on the future of co-creation, focusing on how co-creation process can be improved to achieve new social, creative, and commercial outcomes.

Reflecting on the event, Dr Marianna Rolbina commented:

The symposium forms part of MIOIR’s ongoing research into innovation in creative industries and wider innovation systems. Insights from the event will inform future work on co-creation, collaboration and the evolving role of stakeholders in creative innovation.

Alvin is an alumnus of the University of Manchester, graduating with an undergraduate degree in Economics and Econometrics. He has previously held the positions of Director of Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching, and Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor and Academic Director for Teaching and Learning at the University of Bristol. Alvin has also been Director of the Economics Network since 2012.

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

Greater 91ֱ�� (GM) is recognised as a national and world reference for creative health. Building on a long history of arts and health work, GM launched its Creative Health Strategy in 2022, with ambitions for GM to become the world’s first Creative Health City Region. The GM Creative Health Place Partnership continues to support the development and delivery of creative health activity across Greater 91ֱ��.

As part of this MoU, the three partners (UoM, the ART-based Platform for Co-creation, and NCAR), will work collaboratively with the Greater 91ֱ�� Combined Authority (GMCA) GM Place Partnership, to strengthen international research collaborations.

The agreement will be formally signed in Tokyo on 23 May 2026, following the , at The National Art Center, Tokyo, where colleagues from The University of Manchester will present on creative health initiatives in Greater 91ֱ��.

Whilst in Tokyo, The University of Manchester and GMCA colleagues have been invited to speak at the , alongside academics from TUA and NCAR.

The University of Manchester is proud to work collaboratively with a number of renowned teaching institutions across the globe, with several partners located in Asia including 91ֱ��-Chinese University of Hong Kong, 91ֱ��-Ashoka University, 91ֱ�� O.P. Jindal Global University, 91ֱ��-IISC Bangalore and 91ֱ��-Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

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

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

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

Their testimony draws on their which found that there have been clear and stark ethnic inequalities in infection and mortality rates, testing, monitoring, and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and health, health behaviours and healthcare.

People from ethnic minority groups also experienced detrimental impacts of the pandemic in other ways, such as on their finances, housing, social networks, experiences with the police, and education. These factors are important social determinants of health and wellbeing. The unequal impacts of the pandemic on these factors have led to ethnic inequalities being exacerbated as a result of the pandemic.

James and Laia’s expert report shows how ethnic inequalities result from historical and ongoing racism, which meant that before the pandemic hit, people from ethnic minority groups were more likely to be poorer; have poorly paid and insecure employment; live in overcrowded housing; and live in deprived neighbourhoods with high rates of concentrated poverty and increased pollution. All of these social and economic factors contributed to inequalities in Covid-19 infection and mortality.

The report also criticises the ‘colour blind’ approach taken by political and administrative decision-makers, which meant that they did not take into account the extra social and economic vulnerabilities experienced by ethnic minority groups. This resulted in unequal impacts experienced as a result of social distancing and lockdown measures introduced to control the spread of the pandemic. This included impacts on mental and physical health, in part as a result of limited access to necessary healthcare, in part as a consequence of poorer housing conditions, the greater likelihood of living in deprived areas with limited access to green space and exercise, and in part as a result of the disruption of social and community sources of support. The more vulnerable employment and financial situation of some groups of ethnic minority people prior to the pandemic also meant that they experienced greater negative financial impacts from lockdown measures. 

Led by sociologist Professor Sophie Woodward, Air Spaces: Getting the Measure of Air will explore the social, scientific and environmental dimensions of air quality, focusing on communities in 91ֱ�� where pollution levels are significantly above WHO guidelines.

Air pollution does not affect everyone equally. Housing conditions, neighbourhood geography, transport infrastructure, and work environments all contribute to unequal exposure. Yet research and policy responses often rely on narrow or fragmented datasets. This project seeks to address that gap by combining:

• atmospheric sensor data
• qualitative research
• creative and heritage-based methods
• community knowledge and participation

By developing a new framework for understanding “air inequalities”, the team aims to inform more inclusive and effective approaches to air quality policy and public health intervention.

The research will work closely with community groups and local authorities and brings together UoM academics across multiple faculties: Dr Jenna Ashton, Dr Andrew Balmer, Dr Thomas Bannan, Dr Steve Hicks and Dr Vladimir Jankovic. The project was selected by UKRI as a featured award within its latest Cross Research Council Responsive Mode scheme which is a highly competitive call highlighting breakthrough interdisciplinary ideas. The project partners include Ardwick Climate Action, Love Old Trafford, 91ֱ�� City Council, Transport for Greater 91ֱ�� and Trafford Council.