This includes working with Designers, Government, Social Enterprises, Companies, Artists, Individuals, Charities, Schools and many others. Through these interactions we promote new ways of thinking and acting.
Innovation is a mutually supporting companion to our academic research and it is often the case that research and innovation activities are embodied in the same project. We interact with non-academic stakeholders through a very wide range of activities, from a major international ideas festival in Manchester (FutureEverything) to exhibitions, workshops, ImaginationLabs and toolkits.
Many of these are described within the entries below. We also have a strong tradition of PhD projects that involve active participation in the non-academic world with students working in companies as part of their projects. HighWire, the cross disciplinary PhD training centre, is predicated on working with external partners in the digital economy.
Much of this activity is supported by funded projects from research councils (e.g. the AHRCs support of The Experience Exchange knowledge exchange hub), to central government (through our HEIF Higher Education Innovation Fund projects), to the European Union (through ERDF and INTERREG funding). In total we have received over £12 million of funding for innovation. This is complemented by a range of more informal, interest-led and speculative projects with companies, social groups and individuals.
