The landmark review of Manchester’s science and innovation capacity, chaired by NESTA Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum, and carried out by SQW, reported on how Manchester’s research and innovation assets align with the research priorities of government departments and national research councils.

The report found that:

Manchester has the density of world class scientific strength in areas similar to those in which government departments and national research councils invest;

The reports highlights the unique combination of assets along Corridor Manchester which include the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, NHS Hospitals, incubator and science park facilities;

Science investment is vital in driving the future growth of the Manchester economy and this in turn would play a meaningful role in the further development of the UK’s scientific base and driving the growth needed to secure a robust economic recovery; and

The report looks at how relocation decisions are taken and concludes that both in principle and in practice, there should be scope for more intensive conversations about how these could be taken forward in ways which would benefit Manchester and thereby the UK.

The report also notes that research organisations within Manchester were responsible for almost 6% of all UK research publications between 2006 and 2008. 40% of these were produced with foreign collaborators, indicating the quality and depth of work.

New Economy’s Chief Executive Mike Emmerich said: “This report confirms that Manchester should be considered a prime location for R&D investments and Public Sector Research Establishments. In this respect, the City is very well placed to support the current government’s ambitions in rebalancing the UK economy and laying the groundwork for building a sustainable science and R&D infrastructure.

He added: “The findings of the review will undoubtedly help shape our emerging science and innovation strategy and certainly aid us in our conversations with central government, especially in conveying the importance of Manchester in furthering national science and innovation policy”.

Source: New Economy Manchester

The seminar will commence with short presentations from Sriram Prakesh giving perspectives from Deloitte‘s upcoming Offshoring Benchmarking Survey for the Financial Services Industry and Damian Pettit on the RBS Global Banking & Markets approach to balancing locations, including the recent decision to open their new European Operations Centre in Manchester.

This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with;

Stephen Richardson, Principal Consultant at Glowinkowski & former COO, BNY Mellon
Annette Barnes, Financial Consultant & Former Board Director, Bank of America
Anubrata Biswas, Head of Retail Banking UK, ICICI
Damian Pettit, Head of Operations – European Operations Centre, RBS Global Banking & Markets
Sriram Prakash, Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy, Offshoring & Research, Deloitte LLP
Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive, Manchester City Council
Tim Newns, Deputy Chief Executive, MIDAS

Key topics for the seminar will be:

- Impact of financial crises on Offshoring and Nearshoring
- Delivering Operational Excellence through strategic sourcing
- Balancing higher and lower cost locations: cost versus value
- Building a global delivery model: optimising your global footprint

MIDAS has a limited number of free places to allocate to the seminar, and a small number of complimentary passes for the full three-day City Week conference. To register your interest in either the seminar or the full conference, please contact the City Week Team on the details below.

The new development is located on the campus of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Europe’s largest clinical academic campus. It will provide a unique opportunity to create a centre of international significance for the bio-medical sector with state of the art laboratories and other specialist space.

Jackie Potter, chief executive, Corridor Manchester said: “This is an exciting signature project for the Corridor partnership. As well as delivering much needed space for growing companies in the biomedical sector, the building will be a key hub for healthcare related research, education and R&D activity, stimulating the future growth and success of businesses in and around the Corridor. There was strong interest from a number of developers for this project and I welcome the appointment of Bruntwood and msp after a challenging competition.”

The scheme will see the building refurbished and extended to provide laboratory and business space, with a new glazed atrium providing networking space. There is already strong interest in pre-lets of the development, which will be completed in summer 2012.

It is expected the development will create 440 new jobs and will add £60 million per annum to Manchester’s income (GVA).

Mike Deegan, chief executive, the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Manchester has incredible expertise and strength within the health sector and the redevelopment of the former Royal Eye Hospital will further add to the market offer of the city region. The inclusion of a ‘hub’ to facilitate networking and innovation will be an exciting dimension of the project”.

Bruntwood and Manchester Science Parks are working towards a full planning application submission in the autumn, they aim to start on site with enabling working this winter with a main start on site in the spring, and completion is expected in summer 2012.

Chris Oglesby, chief executive, Bruntwood said: “The development of the former Royal Eye Hospital is a great project for Bruntwood. We’re looking forward to working with msp and using our development expertise to help the city fulfil its potential.”

The appointment of Bruntwood and Manchester Science Parks is made following a seven month OJEU competitive dialogue managed by Corridor Manchester. The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NDWA) provided funding to support the development of the proposals and the process to select a private sector partner.

The Royal Eye Hospital site is owned by the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is one of the partners of Corridor Manchester, the organisation set up to drive economic growth and regeneration on the Corridor – the Oxford Road area of the City.

Source: Corridor Manchester

The following three excellent speakers have been secured:

- Andy Davy, BBC Future Media & Technology Group

- Sue Woodward OBE, Creative Media Champion for Manchester

- Liz Molyneux, Partnership Lead for BBC North

For more information on this event, please click here

Located in Manchester, Epistem’s contract research division provides specialised preclinical and scientific research services to drug development and personal care companies in the areas of oncology, mucositis, inflammatory bowel disease, wound healing and skincare.

Epistem have an established customer base in Western Europe and the U.S and the Veritas agreement will provide Epistem with a sales and marketing presence in Japan and the opportunity to extend its research services, and respond rapidly to market demand.

Epistem’s CEO Matthew Walls commented: “We are delighted to be working with Veritas. They have a strong scientific sales team and established distribution network. The Japanese drug development market provides us with an important opportunity for growth and the agreement with Veritas will allow us to develop closer links with existing Japanese customers.”

Sinsaku Iida, Veritas CEO said: ”It is our great pleasure to work with Epistem. Epistem’s Contract Research Division has a strong preclinical and scientific research service capability which will benefit Japanese pharmaceutical and personal care companies. Veritas’ sales network has the scientific experience necessary to introduce Epistem’s high quality services to potential Japanese customers and will make for more efficient marketing and easier access for Japanese customers to Epistem.“

Source: Epistem

Manchester Airport has invested more than £10 million upgrading the airfield to the standards needed for the Emirates super-jumbo. This includes reconstructing a new aircraft stand with state of the art equipment including an advance docking system, which guides the pilot onto the stand and into the correct position for the unique double airbridge to connect. Construction has taken place over the last 18 months on the airfield at Manchester.

Manchester Airport’s Managing Director Andrew Cornish said: “It’s a proud day for Manchester and we’re naturally pleased that Emirates has chosen Manchester to be the first regional airport in the world to welcome an A380 aircraft. A lot of hard work and planning has gone into the arrival from many people across the business and we’re pleased that as an aerodrome we can accept the newest type of aircraft flying today and that Emirates has recognised Manchester as a world class airport.”

As well as building a new stand the airport has also updated the pier with a new pre-boarding lounge to accommodate the 517 passengers the new Emirates A380 will have onboard at any one time. Emirates have been flying from Manchester to Dubai for almost 20 years and now have a double daily service to Dubai.

The CAA approval is a result of work dating back nearly ten years with the most detailed and intensive work taking place out on the airfield due to the shear size of the aircraft. Taxiways have had to be widened, realigned and reinforced at junctions and turns as well as perimeter fences and over fifty airfield signs moved further away so the super jumbo can pass safely.

The airport has also invested in two new fire-fighting vehicles. One of the vehicles hosts a turntable system with a 30 metre extending ladder which can be extended over inflated emergency exit chutes, enabling the fire service to gain access to any level of an aircraft including those where conventional ladders might not reach.

Manchester airport is now classed as a ‘Category 10’ airport, which means that the airport can not only accept the A380 but other ‘Code F’ aircraft such as some of the larger freighter aircraft that are operating around the world.

Emirates, the biggest customer of the Airbus A380, currently flies the aircraft to London Heathrow, Paris, Seoul and Bangkok amongst others.

Source: Manchester Airport

Doing Business with North America – an insiders view

We bring together 3 distinct tales of trading with the US. Including a guest speaker from US firm of accountants RSM McGladreys, the market, the culture and the law and the impact it has.

We will also be hearing from a UK business Colour Matrix, who deals with a US owner organisation on the experiences and negotiations that have been needed with the States.

To round off the morning UKTI will be presenting their great hints and tips of dealing with the US.

Outline of the session:

* Registration
* Introduction from RSM Tenon
* Doing business with North America – A US perspective
* Doing business with North America – A UK perspective
* Help and advice from UKTI
* Q&A
* Close, networking and refreshments

This event facilitates the cross border knowledge that is invaluably needed to successfully trade with the US. We will also be asking for your help in selecting the issues, sectors or geographic regions you want us to cover in subsequent events.

And in her first week in post Angie has set out an ambitious future for the organisation responsible for attracting investment and jobs to Manchester City Region.

Angie, a high profile member of the Manchester business community, joins from her previous role as Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Chamber where she experienced considerable success, most notably in merging all of the Chambers in Greater Manchester.

Angie Robinson said: “There can be no doubt that there are challenging times ahead but MIDAS is a highly successful, results-driven organisation that creates jobs and prosperity for the city region and our role is vital to Manchester’s continued success.

“I am very much looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and leading the already successful team at MIDAS to even greater achievements in the future.”

A breakfast event with guest speaker Steve Kucewicz.  Steve is a Solicitor specialising in Intellectual Property and Media Law with a particular emphasis on media, new media and “Web 2.0″ His expertise also coverCopyright, Trade Mark, Passing-Off, Design Right, Confidentiality, Database Right, Business Reputation Management, Trade Libel and other Media issues and he is experienced in all methods of dispute resolution including litigation, arbitration, mediation and specialist tribunals such as the Trade Mark Registry.Steve is also a Board Member at pro.manchester, a member of the council of Manchester Law Society, Honorary Solicitor to the Manchester Publicity Association and a regular media commentator on IP and Media Law.

To book please visit http://www.pro-manchester.co.uk or contact Robina Williams on 0161 833 0964 / robina.williams@pro-manchester.co.uk

And this is the first year that the new ‘A*’ grade has been awarded, with 8.6% of pupils achieving the top grade, compared to 8% nationally.

The overall pass rate A*-E for Manchester was 99%, which is 1.4% higher than the national figure of 97.6%.

The proportion of A-Levels at grade A* and A for Manchester was 29%, which is 2% higher than the national figure of 27%.

At Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury, pupils and staff celebrated the school’s A-level results with 26% of A* and A Grades. The number of pupils achieving grades A* – C is 77% with an overall pass rate of 99%. Sixteen pupils at the school got straight A*s and As.

Deputy Headteacher Andrew Shakos, who will take over the headship of the school in September, said: “Our students have put in an incredible amount of hard work and have been dedicated and committed to their studies. We have had an exceptional year group and are very proud of their results. We believe that the majority of pupils who applied have also been accepted into their first choice of university.”

At Whalley Range High School for Girls, today’s exam results saw 41% of pupils awarded grades A*-B with 25% awarded top A* and A grades. The school’s overall pass rate (for all grades, including vocational courses) is up on last year at 99.3%.

Headteacher Patsy Kane said: “I am very proud of the pupils and pleased with the results which have improved again on last year.”

North Manchester’s King David High School’s pupils and staff celebrated a 99.5% pass rate, with 38% of pupils achieving A*s and A grades. 94% of pupils achieved A* – Cs, with six pupils going to Oxford or Cambridge universities.

Councillor Sheila Newman, executive member for children’s services at Manchester City Council said: “The A level results are fantastic for the city and show once again that Manchester schools have achieved higher grades than the national average. This highlights the dedicated, hard work put in by the pupils and staff alike and the continued quality of teaching standards.”

Source: Manchester City Council