What's on the Platform?

Sharing knowledge across a city region can help us all to work towards a more sustainable future by connecting good ideas with great people and organisations. It's time to be good, it's time to share: we need a platform.

Platform is a knowledge sharing facility, online news source and information portal for building sustainability and innovation across Greater Manchester. It is aimed primarily at decision makers in business, government and the third sector but will also be designed and written in a form that will bridge the gap between those who 'govern' the city region and the 2-3 million people who live or work here.

We’d like to think it will reduce a democratic deficit in terms of awareness and understanding of what’s being done on sustainability in the city region. It will make work towards a sustainable future better known and more transparent.

Who owns the Manchester Platform?

Platform has been catalysed by the Mistra Urban Futures Greater Manchester Local Interaction Platform (GMLIP). It is a partnership of the Centre for Sustainable and Urban Regional Futures (SURF) at the University of Salford and Manchester-based communications agency Creative Concern. Mistra Urban Futures is examining urban sustainability in a number of global city regions, including Greater Manchester.

Partners in the project also include the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its Low Carbon Hub (formerly the GM Environment Commission). The funding partnership behind the site at launch includes Mistra Urban Futures, University of Salford/Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures, GMCA and Creative Concern.

The governance of the site is under development but it has been led by a number of partners including members of the Greater Manchester Environment Commission, collaborators on the Mistra Urban Futures Greater Manchester Local Interaction Platform, led by SURF, and participants from the digital and environmental sectors who took part in a development workshop; it is envisioned that a Platform Editorial Panel will be established in time for the launch of the site.