We have the critical mass and expertise to help you achieve your objectives.
Whether you’re an international blue chip developing advanced materials for AI, an ambitious SME engineering biology to drive pioneering solutions, or a charity tackling climate injustice, we can support you in facing future challenges with confidence. The scale of our interdisciplinary research activity sets us apart. We’re able to combine disciplines and capabilities to meet both the challenges of leading-edge research and the external demands of government, business and communities – from engineering biology, future telecommunications and AI, to quantum technologies and semiconductors.
Through the capabilities of our 24 specialist interdisciplinary research institutes and centres, and our research excellence in advanced materials, biotechnology and energy, our community comes together to deliver real world solutions.
Discover our approach to AI, fundamental, health, quantum and digital, and sustainability:
AI
This is the place where the word’s first stored-program computer was born, paving the way for the AI of today. We are at the forefront of fundamental AI research and its application. We are forging the way in designing trustworthy autonomous systems, involving low-energy neuromorphic computing to harness the potential of AI.
We have a community of more than 800 affiliated researchers and academics working on AI-related projects across the entire University. This includes 33 Turing Fellows – with one of just five world-leading Turing Fellows – and two newly recruited Chairs in Machine Learning.
We have a portfolio of £75 million in active data science and AI grants, and are on a five-year journey of strategic growth aligned with city region, national, international, industry and funder priorities. This growth is focused on further developing our global expertise in AI, Security, Robotics, and Semiconductor Technology.
Fundamental research
We deliver transformative breakthroughs, from the isolation of graphene to developing plastic-eating bacteria to transform recycling.
Through innovative use of mass spectrometry, our scientists have developed a new method to detect Parkinson’s disease; our mathematicians devised modelling that informed government policy during COVID-19; and our experts patented the ‘molecular seeding’ process that forms the basis of Nanoco's unique technology.
Our researchers lead experiments at CERN, to help unveil secrets of our Solar System; we host the headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) at Jodrell Bank, the largest radio telescope in the world; and The University of Manchester at Harwell provides an interface between our researchers and the National Facilities.
Health
We are the forefront of engineering biology, and our research tackles today’s global health challenges of an increasing population, ageing with a focus on both quantity and quality of life, chronic hunger issues, lack of clean drinking water, and antimicrobial resistance to name but a few.
We are highly collaborative and multidisciplinary, working with clinicians, regulatory bodies, and health economists to translate health research into transformative applications.
We create innovative technologies for health; from fundamental research that will help lead to personalised forms of immunotherapy; to biomaterials for regenerative medicine, and medical devices for monitoring.
Quantum and digital
Our pioneering materials research underpins developing quantum and digital technologies, alongside our depth of fundamental research in these and related areas.
Our experts access cutting-edge facilities including the world-leading £120m National Graphene Institute with 1,500m² of class 100 and 1000 cleanrooms, the £60m Photon Science Institute, and our state-of-the-art Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC), one of the largest in the UK. This provides the environment for our researchers to drive the development of quantum 2.0 technologies and exploit quantum effects with revolutionary capability in imaging, computing, characterisation, and sensing.
We are the birthplace of the digital research revolution. It started with the ‘Manchester Baby’, the world’s first stored-program computer. 75 years on, our ground-breaking research continues today with projects like the computer vision research, which revolutionises digital entertainment by enabling accurate facial motion capture; RobotAnalyst, a web-based tool used by over 200 teams including NICE to improve decision-making in healthcare; and the RIDDOR Text Analysis Tool created to boost safety planning on construction sites.
Sustainability
Our researchers address the entire lifecycle of the sustainability challenge with our unrivalled facilities and diverse perspectives.
We have influenced the United Nations’ policy on plastic, helped more than 250 local authorities reduce carbon emissions and enabled international standards for soot emission measurement, impacting air quality around the world. We work with businesses to co-develop sustainable solutions for materials use and end-of-life; and are finding ways to reduce our reliance on petroleum-based feedstocks by capitalising on waste streams and biomass.
Because of our interdisciplinary approach, our community develops solutions that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
“We deliver world-leading and world-changing research, teaching and innovation to bring transformative benefit to society and the environment. We enable impact at a global and national level and make an outstanding contribution to Manchester and our region."
“We support our people to follow their curiosity, framed within a clarity of focus that draws us towards delivering collective change from a local to global scale; and we proudly maintain a world-leading research environment where talent is attracted and developed, ambition and risk-taking rewarded, and transformative outcomes are delivered."
“Our research shapes the lives of all who engage with us and becomes the legacy we create.”
Professor Richard Curry, Vice Dean Research and Innovation
