Building long-term SME partnerships through translation, trust, and capability at Manchester Metropolitan University

We are pleased to welcome The Manchester Metropolitan University (ManMet) as an Accelerator Member of the UIIN community. Through its Centre for Enterprise, the university has developed a strong reputation for working closely with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting them to innovate, grow, and generate tangible economic and societal impact across Greater Manchester and beyond.

We spoke with Professor Jennie Shorley, who leads the Centre for Enterprise, about how ManMet approaches collaboration with businesses, what it takes to build lasting partnerships with SMEs, and why translation, trust, and capability-building sit at the core of their engagement model.

Collaboration as a starting point, not an outcome

At the Centre for Enterprise, collaboration is not treated as an additional activity layered onto teaching or research. It is the foundation on which the Centre’s work is built, connecting universities, businesses, policymakers, and communities around shared challenges and opportunities. Rather than focusing on one-off projects, the Centre’s work is shaped by a long-term view of collaboration and impact.

We don’t exist if we can’t collaborate. You can’t create impact unless you work with all of those actors together.

This emphasis on collaboration is reflected in how the Centre defines success. Its work is fully externally funded, meaning that activities must demonstrate value not only in principle, but in practice. Funders typically expect clear outcomes, such as businesses engaged, jobs created, and new products or services brought to market. While some of these impacts can be measured during a project, many only become visible over time, once businesses have had the opportunity to apply and build on what they have learned.

What the Centre for Enterprise does in practice

Established in 2012, the Centre for Enterprise operates as a practice-driven interface between research, education, and the needs of small and medium-sized firms. Over time, it has evolved into a hub for enterprise support, business growth, and applied research, with a particular focus on making academic insight usable in real business contexts.

Rather than organising its work around isolated interventions, the Centre delivers a portfolio of programmes that support businesses at different stages of development. These initiatives focus on helping SMEs navigate innovation challenges, strengthen leadership capability, and connect with wider networks of expertise. This approach has enabled the Centre to work with thousands of businesses across Greater Manchester and the wider North West, supporting job creation, new products, and longer-term organisational change.

A defining feature of the Centre’s model is how research is embedded into engagement activities. Research is not treated as a parallel or downstream function, but as something that actively informs programme design, facilitation, and policy engagement. This allows businesses to access evidence-based insights without needing to interpret academic research themselves, while researchers remain closely connected to enterprise practice.

Students and graduates are also part of this ecosystem. Through enterprise learning activities, and collaborative projects, they engage with live business challenges and develop entrepreneurial capabilities that extend beyond start-up creation alone. For SMEs, this creates opportunities to engage with emerging talent in a supported and low-risk way, often forming the basis for longer-term relationships with the university.

Taken together, these activities reflect an engagement model that prioritises continuity over one-off delivery. The Centre’s work is less about providing discrete services and more about accompanying businesses over time, helping them test ideas, build confidence, and access expertise when it is most relevant.

From one project to a sustained partnership

Many collaborations begin with a single, clearly defined project. One such example is the Centre’s work with Gola, a globally recognised shoe brand that nonetheless operates as a relatively small firm. The initial engagement focused on process innovation for sustainability, specifically on reducing carbon emissions in prototyping and manufacturing workflows.

What followed was not a predefined strategic partnership, but a gradual deepening of collaboration. Through continued interaction, the company began to rethink not only individual processes, but its broader approach to innovation, customer engagement, and product development. Over time, this led to organisational change, new ways of working, and further collaboration with the university. Gola has since employed graduates, participated in knowledge transfer partnerships, and expanded its engagement across multiple activities.

Universities can be quite transactional with businesses. That longevity of relationships is really important to us.

For the Centre, this progression from a single project to a sustained partnership is not unusual. Many SMEs initially approach universities for one specific need, often unaware of the broader support available. Making that wider offer visible, and relevant, requires trust, familiarity, and ongoing engagement.

Navigating the tensions of engagement

Building long-term relationships with SMEs also involves navigating persistent challenges. One is the reliance on individual champions within companies. While having a committed contact person is essential, innovation cannot remain isolated within a single role. If that individual leaves, relationships can quickly dissolve.

To address this, the Centre works deliberately across different levels of organisations, often engaging both leadership and the wider workforce. Innovation is treated as a collective capability rather than an individual responsibility.

Similar tensions exist within universities. While some academics are highly experienced in working with industry, others are less familiar with business timescales and expectations. When SMEs are passed between contacts without sufficient support, relationships can falter.

Differences in pace are a recurring issue. Academic research values rigour and robustness, while businesses often operate under pressure to move quickly.

Businesses want things done straight away. That’s understandable. But being really clear about how long things take and why they take that long is crucial.

Clear communication, rather than speed alone, is often what sustains collaboration.

Translation, respect, and innovation capability

Reflecting on why the Centre for Enterprise has been effective in its work with SMEs, three underlying principles stand out. The first is translation, understood not as simplifying language, but as reshaping knowledge so that it makes sense within a practitioner context.

The second is respect. Businesses are treated as peers, not as recipients of expertise. Many have operated successfully for decades, and collaboration is framed as joint problem-solving rather than one-way knowledge transfer.

The third principle challenges a common assumption in innovation policy: innovation is not the same as technology.

Innovation isn’t technology. You don’t just buy something and everything gets better. We focus first on how businesses think, test ideas, and understand their problems. The technology comes after that.

By focusing on innovation capability before technological solutions, the Centre helps businesses build more resilient foundations for change.

Looking outward

While the Centre for Enterprise has developed a mature approach to SME engagement, it remains actively interested in how others work with similar audiences in different contexts. In particular, the team is keen to learn more about engaging medium-sized firms, which are often harder to reach but increasingly important within collaborative programmes.

This outward orientation is less about showcasing success and more about learning through comparison and exchange. For the Centre, collaboration remains not only a means of creating impact, but an ongoing process of reflection and refinement.

In doing so, the Centre continues to refine an engagement model grounded in trust, translation, and long-term capability-building.

Interested in learning more?

You can find out more about the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University by visiting their website or by connecting with the team on LinkedIn.

Join a global community shaping the future of universities

Manchester Metropolitan University is one of many universities and organisations around the world redefining how higher education engages with industry, government, and society. As a UIIN Member, you’ll gain access to this global network of forward-thinking institutions, connect with peers tackling similar challenges, and exchange insights on innovation, entrepreneurship, and societal impact.

Whether you want to strengthen your partnerships, build internal capacity, or stay ahead of emerging trends — UIIN Membership gives you the platform and connections to do it.

Luca Barbera (author) is a Project Officer at UIIN. His work encompasses a broad spectrum of research topics, including sustainability, deep tech, engagement practices for universities and academics, with a particular emphasis on the valorisation of results.