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MetroPolis Matters (May 2024) |
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Dear Colleague
I hope you had a lovely bank holiday break!
May has been jam-packed for MetroPolis, supporting a huge range of impactful policy activity from across the faculties. Following May's big political announcement, we're now also working with our expert academic commentators to look ahead to General Election 2024.
Here's a taste of what we've been up to this month:
- Coordinating the inaugural Jury Duty Appreciation Week with Dr Hannah Fawcett (Health and Education) and Dr Matt Brooks (Health and Education), campaigning for better psychological support for jurors. We were pleased to see the announcement of a pilot juror therapy scheme by the Ministry of Justice during the Week.
- Delivering 'What's Policy Got To Do With It?' policy engagement training sessions for Manchester Met's Centre for Decent Work and Productivity and Business School Impact Conference, and sharing MetroPolis' work with the fab team at Policy@Sussex.
- Hosting Sarah Carter-Bell (Knowledge Exchange Unit Manager, UK Parliament) for an excellent, practical training session on engaging with UK Parliament. We were also pleased to have the opportunity to share MetroPolis' work with Sarah, and identify areas for future collaboration. See Sarah's top tips for engaging with Parliament at the bottom of this newsletter.
- Delivering a showcase to Angela Harrington (Director of Inclusive Economies, Manchester City Council (MCC)) covering the brilliant work of our Business School, including Professor Julia Rouse's BOOST project with Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP), and Apprenticeships.
- Preparing activity around the next General Election. Keep an eye out for blogs, think-pieces and speaker events from our Manchester Met experts, and get in touch if you want to get involved.
Finally, I am sad to say this will be my last MetroPolis Matters! I am leaving the university for a new role, and will be leaving the newsletter in the very capable hands of my MetroPolis colleagues. Thank you to all the brilliant people I have worked with over the past year and a half - it's been a pleasure to collaborate on so many fascinating, important projects. And particular thanks to the stellar MetroPolis team. MetroPolis really is an innovative, unique service, driven by inspiring, kind and supportive colleagues.
Going forward, Katherine Roycroft (k.roycroft@mmu.ac.uk) will be your point of contact for all things MetroPolis! We'll be taking a break over the summer, but we will be back with more exciting news and updates in August/September. If there’s anything you would like to see included in MetroPolis Matters please do let us know!
Abby
PS- And on that sad note, we would just like to share our heartfelt thanks to Abby who has been such a fantastic colleague to work with and has helped MetroPolis become the success it is today. We couldn’t have done it without her unfailing enthusiasm and commitment and we wish Abby all the best in her new role (The MetroPolis Team)
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Read about Chancellor's Fellow Professor Rebecca Pearson's collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Chile, developing mental health programs for young people.
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Professor Michelle McManus was invited to give oral evidence by the Education Committee on their new inquiry into Children's Social Care. Find out what she told them.
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Read about the recent launch event, covered by Granada News, for the new research report by Dr Maz Idriss on 'Honour-Based Abuse' and the courts.
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Get your brew ready- we've got a trio of terrific blogposts for you this month!
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Wednesday 19th June, 12pm-1.30pm, Online
Join Mark Fuller (Showrunner Communications) for an interactive online session on how to write for policy stakeholders, including advice on drafting comment articles and blogs, and Select Committee and Government consultation responses.
UPEN x MetroPolis: Criminal and Civil Justice policy networking
Wednesday 10th July, 12pm-1pm, Online
Are you a researcher, policymaker or professional working in the field of criminal and civil justice on a local, regional, national or international level? Save the date for this dedicated networking session to expand your network and build new relationships.
Wednesday 18th September, 2pm-3pm, Online
Join an editor from The Conversation to learn how to consider the news potential of your expertise, how to look for story hooks and angles from the news, and how to write a quality story pitch to section editors.
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We offer a number of routes for enhancing the policy impact of your research. You can apply for support through the links below. To find out which is the most suitable for your work, or for more tailored support, please reach out to the MetroPolis team.
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The Chancellor’s Fellowship: Our prestigious MetroPolis Chancellor's Fellowship scheme offers high-quality researchers from Manchester Met placements with policy organisations including government departments, charities and think tanks.
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Rapid Funding Scheme: A quick turnaround funding scheme for a range of activities to enhance the policy impact of research including events, travel, networking and (non academic) publications.
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1-1 Policy Coaching: A one-to-one service for support with your pathways to policy impact delivered by Showrunner Communications, who are experts in public policy.
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We were thrilled to host Sarah Carter-Bell (Knowledge Exchange Unit Manager, UK Parliament) for a recent session on engaging with UK Parliament. Her presentation was so useful, we wanted to share her top policy engagement tips with you!
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Be visible - start building your online presence, whether on social media, keeping your institutional profile up to date, or by writing for websites like The Conversation.
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Be succinct - start working on a short and sweet 'elevator pitch' introducing yourself and your research to time-pressured policymakers (making clear why they should care!).
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Develop your stakeholder engagement list - keep an up to date list of key policy stakeholders to target with your research. For help producing this list, get in touch with us.
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Automate - there are so many policy engagement opportunities out there, it can be overwhelming! Subscribe to and automate the following notifications to stay up to date: 1 2 3 4
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Draw on institutional support - make sure to use the fantastic support available at Manchester Met for policy engagement, like MetroPolis' 1-1 Policy Coaching and support developing policy briefings. Get in touch with us for more information.
To find out more about the Knowledge Exchange Unit, visit their website or Twitter.
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