Cities and Environment

Levelling up regional resilience

By Marianne Sensier and Elvira Uyarra Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Growth and Inclusion Posted: May 12, 2020

Dr Marianne Sensier and Dr Elvira Uyarra have conducted research comparing the economic resilience, community wellbeing, sustainability and governance of Greater Manchester and Preston in recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. The financial crisis provided a window of opportunity for some places to develop new arrangements to adapt and diversify regional economies. In this blog, […]

A tale of cities: Local diasporas hold a key to strengthening international outreach

By Yaron Matras Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Growth and Inclusion Posted: May 5, 2020

The publication of Government guidance on social distancing saw a delay between the release of the English language version and the guidance being provided in different languages. In this blog, Professor Yaron Matras examines this disparity and suggests a new policy to prevent a similar issue arising in the future. The release of social distancing […]

How modelling can become a debate-support tool, not just a decision-support tool

By Graham Haughton, Nuno Pinto and Iain White Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Digital Futures Posted: April 21, 2020

As many politicians around the world inform the public of their responses to the coronavirus outbreak, they frequently refer to the science on which their decisions are based. In this blog, Professor Graham Haughton, Dr Nuno Pinto and Professor Iain White explore the changing nature of how modelling tools are forming political and public debate. […]

Privacy pitfalls in combatting coronavirus digitally: Lessons from South Korea

By Michael Prentice Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Digital Futures, Health and Care, Health and Social Care Posted: April 3, 2020

As the UK embarks on rolling out new digital and mobile capacities in the fight against COVID-19, other countries may serve as bellwethers for potential issues. In this blog, Dr Michael Prentice, Research Fellow in Digital Trust and Security, discusses privacy issues that arose in South Korea’s technology-driven response to the COVID-19 outbreak and how […]

Power from the sun, money from the crowd: community energy offers low-cost finance for renewables

By Tim Braunholtz-Speight Filed Under: All posts, Cities and Environment, Energy and Environment, Renewables, Science and Engineering, Science and Technology, Urban Posted: March 25, 2020

The fall in the cost of renewable energy has created new possibilities for citizen investors to fund community energy projects. However, the majority require some level of price support. In this blog, researchers from The University of Manchester call for policies to support the growth of this sector, such as encouraging the purchase of community-generated […]

Net-zero target by 2050? We can do better than that

By Simon Bullock Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Renewables, Science and Engineering Posted: May 16, 2019

Simon Bullock is a PhD student at Tyndall Manchester, working on shipping and climate change. In this blog Simon discusses the Net Zero report published this month by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and argues that under the principles the CCC is rightly advocating, this 2050 date is too late. This month the Committee […]

Local Industrial Strategies can capitalise on gaps in UK climate and resource policies

By Dr Kate Scott Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Digital Futures, Energy and Environment Posted: January 23, 2019

As the UK and many local regions embark on developing and implementing industrial strategies Dr Kate Scott from the School of Environment, Education and Development argues it is crucial to identify how their strengths can support innovation and development for low carbon transitions. This is particularly true in light of the government’s recent announcement that […]

Keynote for Industrial Strategy panel discussion

By Luke Georghiou Filed Under: All posts, Cities and Environment, Digital Futures, News Posted: December 5, 2018

On 29 November 2018, academics, representatives from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Government collaborated at an event to help inform policy priorities for Greater Manchester’s Local Industrial Strategy. Minister for Business and Industry Richard Harrington MP was joined by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, to speak about ‘Delivering the Grand Challenges […]

Messy but meaningful – how to make interdisciplinary water-energy-food-environment research more influential

By Alice Larkin and Claire Hoolohan Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Digital Futures, Science and Technology Posted: November 19, 2018

UK academia is arguably at the forefront of the kind of inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research needed to tackle global grand societal challenges. This distinctive mode of research aims to be policy-relevant and impactful, but by its nature is often messy, complex and difficult to communicate. Here, a group of academics from The University of Manchester […]

A Policy@Manchester interview with the Dr Bachir Ouedraogo, Minister of Energy for Burkina Faso

By Chris Peters Filed Under: Cities and Environment, Digital Futures, Energy and Environment, Industry 4.0 Posted: August 7, 2018

Dr Bachir Ouedraogo won a scholarship from the Sustainable Consumption Institute at The University of Manchester and he went on complete his PhD in MACE in 2012 looking at the impact of climate change, renewable energy and population on the future energy demand for Burkina Faso. In 2015 Bachir was elected to the National Assembly […]