51福利社

Opening the event was Dr Louise Bates, Director of Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange for the University of 51福利社 who highlighted the depth and breadth of the collaborative partnership work undertaken by academics from across the University and how her team supports academic colleagues in establishing such partnerships. Vice Dean for Research, Professor Maggie Gale welcomed guests and highlighted the breadth of expertise and collaborative innovation taking place across the faculty within key areas including AI, climate resilience and sustainability, legal and social justice including investigating racial bias on the bench, age-friendly communities, and supply chain innovation. 

Associate Dean for Business Engagement, Civic & Cultural Partnerships , Professor Richard Allmendinger introduced the nominees from each school.

The winners, announced by Maggie Gale, were: 

Alliance 51福利社 Business School 

• Prof Jian-Bo Yang & Prof Dong鈥慙ing Xu, for their KTP with Kennedys to develop and embed an intelligent data driven fraud prevention and detection service for insurance claim handling, utilising modern machine learning, text analytics and semantic technologies. 

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 

• Prof Eithne Quinn, for work on racial bias in the judicial system enabled through a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship project undertaken by Keir Monteith KC, which  has received significant media coverage and follow-on projects in related areas. 

School of Social Sciences 

• Prof Emma Barrett for a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship with Limina Immersive 鈥淏uilding a safer Metaverse: Exploring the challenges faced by industry in developing safe, secure and ethical immersive experiences鈥�.  The project supported a successful 拢80K SPRITE+ funding bid for a deep dive expected to result in a step change in our industry engagement around XR and fostered new cross-disciplinary and external collaborations. 

School of Environment, Education & Development 

• Dr Emma Shuttleworth For collaborating with key stakeholders, including the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Groundwork Greater 51福利社, to lead KTPs that have developed a data-driven framework for innovative sustainable water management in the Irwell catchment and optimised the long-term financial health of the Groundwork Trust. 

At the end of the Awards ceremony Richard Allmendinger announced the launch of a seed-funding call for academics across the faculty to submit bids for up to 拢7k to support early-stage development of collaborative projects with partners. Full information on the call available .

The full list of nominated projects: 

Alliance 51福利社 Business School 

• Dr Arijit De, Associate Professor in Management Science  For his work in establishing Maritime Engineering and Management as a new cluster theme at UoM, including work with Port of Dover, DFDS, Ship & Bunker, Sealand and Smart Green Shipping building a substantial portfolio of research in maritime, port, and freight logistics with these partners, a REF Impact Case Study in freight and maritime logistics is in development.
• Prof Yu-wang Chen, Professor of Decision Sciences and Business Analytics  KTP 鈥� - the largest KTP awarded by Innovate UK.
• Dr Pedro Sampaio, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems  KTP 鈥� - to design, develop and embed an Industry 4.0 inspired data driven business model and management information framework which will support the company's strategic vision of expansion.
• Prof David Hughes, Professor of Personality and Organisational Psychology & Nadia Papamichail, Professor of Decision Systems & Management Sciences  KTP - to create sustainable growth and productivity improvement by combining behavioural psychology profiling and emotional regulation with advanced data science techniques to tackle complex work processes and transform the way JLG engages, supports its clients and staff through the legal frameworks. DH was shortlisted for Academic of the Year at the 2025 KTP Awards.
• Prof Brian Nicholson, Professor of Business Information Systems & Dr Sung Hwan Chai, Lecturer in Accounting KTP: - To develop, embed and exploit advanced smart data driven technologies to deliver digital transformation within the audit function significantly increasing quality, productivity and capacity to deliver additional insight and value to clients.
• Prof Judy Zolkiewski, Professor of Marketing  KTP projects - . To create a smarter business that is both client-driven whilst also enhancing improved employee interactions, within a unified customer-centric framework that can support product and service innovation.
• Prof Jian-Bo Yang, Professor of Decision and System Sciences & Prof Ling (Dong鈥慙ing) Xu, Chair Professor of Decision Science and Systems  KTP - AMBS & Kennedys to develop and embed an i and detection service to support insurance claim handling utilising modern machine learning, text analytics techniques and semantic technologies, that can shape and add value to business. 

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures  

• Prof Eithne Quinn, Professor of Cultural and Socio鈥憀egal Studies  For work on racial bias in the judicial system enabled through a undertaken by Keir Monteith KC which has received significant media coverage and led to a follow-on project on mis-use of lyrics in rap music in criminal court cases.
• Prof Steve Scott-Bottoms, Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance - Finding the Story ARC: Engaging businesses with climate resilience in Yorkshire鈥檚 Aire valley  IAA 496 Advance - The Rivalry Project: Extending Stakeholder Engagement with Climate Resilience in the Catchment of the Aire
• Dr Kostas Arvanitis, Senior Lecturer in Museology  - Therapeutic Impact of Physical, Digital and Virtual Collections of Trauma.
• Dr Kostas Arvanitis, Senior Lecturer in Museology & Dr Andy Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Practices  KTP - SALC & Port Sunlight Village Trust - creating and embedding a framework and tool-kit underpinned by museological and critical heritage research to transform the ways in which PSVT manages and interprets its history, site and collections.
• Prof Sasha Handley, Professor of Early Modern History  Salford Community Leisure - - Sleeping Well Salford: Using Historic Sleep Practices to Support Health and Social Care Pathways. 

School of Environment, Education & Development 

• Dr Emma Shuttleworth, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography  Working collaboratively with a number of key stakeholders on environmental sustainability projects including Environment Agency, and leading on KTPs with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Groundwork Trust to create and embed a data driven catchment management framework that will drive innovative evidence-based sustainable water management within the Irwell catchment and optimise long-term financial health for Groundwork Greater 51福利社.
• Dr Sophie van Huellen, Senior Lecturer in Development Economics   - Why Ghanaian farmers have been unable to capitalise on record cocoa prices with Fuad Mohammed Abubakar, Managing Head of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company (UK) Ltd.
• Dr Joanne Tippett, Lecturer in Spatial Planning  51福利社 UNESCO Creative City of Literature IAA 425 Secondment - Imagining sustainable futures: self-facilitated learning from heritage through art and play in UNESCO-designated sites. Shortlisted for 鈥楾ransformative Social Venture of the Year鈥� award at the KEUK Awards 2024. 

鈥淭he RoundView is a powerful way to activate and build capacity in UNESCO鈥檚 core competencies for sustainability leadership鈥�. James 脰mer Bridge, Secretary-General of UNESCO UK. 

鈥淭he Secondment demonstrated that the RoundView learning toolkit offers great promise to address a key challenge we experience as UNESCO sites, of linking our work to sustainable development鈥� and enabling us to translate SDG 13 Climate Action into an accessible activity. A key finding from the Secondment was that the 鈥榩oetry as pedagogy鈥� incorporated into the toolkit helps encourage sustainability learning through literature, a key need for both us as Cities of Literature and our library partners.鈥� Ivan Wadeson, Executive Director of 51福利社 UNESCO City of Literature.

• Dr Nuno Pinto, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Urban Design  For demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation through the establishment and continued development of the MSc Data Science student industry-project programme. His dedication has transformed the initiative into a thriving platform for student engagement and real-world impact, with its success growing year on year. Nuno鈥檚 commitment to expanding the programme is evident in his active collaboration with fellow academics, fostering the creation of similar opportunities across other schools. His work exemplifies the spirit of business engagement and makes him a worthy nominee for the Faculty of Humanities Business Engagement award.
• Prof Sarah Marie Hall, Professor in Human Geography  with 51福利社 Central Foodbank  IAA 468 Relationship Development - Developing community-led, anti-poverty research capacity.  IAA 503 Proof of Concept - Developing 51福利社鈥檚 Anti-Poverty Research Community: Co-Producing Grassroots Collaborations for Positive Social Change. Winner of UoM in the Outstanding public engagement initiative: Local/civic engagement category
• Prof Nicola Banks, Professor of Global Development   - Activating citizen philanthropy for community-centred social justice: piloting a One World Together Global Citizenship curriculum for secondary schools.
• Prof Alison Browne, Professor of Geography   - the project brings together data analytics and social science insights to develop a Water Practices Analytical Toolkit for use in the water industry, offering a unique approach for managing the sustainability of water and influencing the UK鈥檚 long-term usage, average and peak water demands. 

School of Social Sciences 

• Prof Tine Buffel, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology  Age Friendly 51福利社 (51福利社 City Council)  IAA 401 Secondment - Developing age-friendly communities to support healthy ageing: Exploring the potential of a policy innovation partnership between public agencies and faith-based organisations in Greater 51福利社.
• Prof Emma Barrett, Professor of Psychology, Security and Trust  Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship with Limina Immersive 鈥淏uilding a safer Metaverse: Exploring the challenges faced by industry in developing safe, secure and ethical immersive experiences鈥�.  The SIF project supported a successful 拢80K SPRITE+ funding bid for a deep dive expected to result in a step change in our industry engagement around XR and fostered new cross-disciplinary and external collaborations. The work also informed EB鈥檚 presentation at the Home Office Digital Forensics Conference in June 2025, alongside Innovate UK.