After a busy programme of fringe events at this week’s Conservative Party conference, a top-flight team of University of Manchester academics will travel the short distance to Liverpool for an equally hectic schedule of debates with politicians and subject experts on Monday and Tuesday (9 and 10 October).
Policy@Manchester, the University’s policy engagement unit, will host seven gatherings with five taking place outside the secure zone where free entry can be gained without a conference pass.
Monday’s four events include a timely discussion on how to save the nation’s rivers from the ever-growing problem of pollution from untreated wastewater and sewage. Chaired by Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust CEO Sarah Fowler, the panel features Shadow Minister for Nature and Rural Affairs Toby Perkins MP, Keep Britain Tidy CEO Allison Ogden-Newton and University of Manchester Professor of Physical Geography Jamie Woodward.
Other policy challenges up for debate on Monday include how to rebuild regional economies through innovation, and how to address UK economic inactivity.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, addressing a fringe event organised by Policy@Manchester at Conservative Party conference earlier this week
Tuesday’s line-up features a discussion on levelling up education chaired by former Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield, with a panel of Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Chapman, Leader of Bury Council Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, University of Manchester Lecturer and Presidential Fellow Dr Eric Lybeck, Right to Succeed CEO Paul O’Neill, and Head of Policy at The Centre for Education and Youth and The Cultural Learning Alliance Baz Ramaiah.
The Policy@Manchester conference programme will be completed with an examination of ethnic inequalities in mental healthcare, and a high-level debate on how Labour can build strong local institutions to reduce regional inequalities with speakers including Mayor of Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram, Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness and University of Manchester Professor of Government Practice Andy Westwood.
Professor Cecilia Wong, Academic Co-Director of Policy@Manchester, said: “We were delighted with how well attended our fringe events were at the Conservative conference in Manchester and now look forward to another successful programme at the Labour conference in Liverpool.
“The gatherings are all about exchanging views, sharing ideas and putting forward solutions to some of the biggest policy conundrums the country faces.
“The University of Manchester is the proud home of some of the best and brightest academic minds anywhere in the world.
“Our Policy@Manchester events provide an ideal opportunity to showcase a sample of the evidence-based policy work going on in the University in the run-up to the next General Election.”
More information on the fringe programme is available on the Policy@Manchester website.