Urban Regeneration: Making a Difference is an innovative programme addressing some of the key urban regeneration challenges facing the north of England. The £3.2m programme, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), encompasses 46 projects set up around the themes of crime, community cohesion, health & well-being and enterprise.

The grouping of four universities pools resources and encourages interdisciplinary working. Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Northumbria, University of Salford and the University of Central Lancashire, have been working in partnership with a variety of organisations, making a difference to their local communities.
Universities are already doing much to contribute to aspects of regeneration, but the level of engagement and inter-disciplinary working needs to be scaled up dramatically in order to ensure that invaluable academic resources are being used to their full potential.  As well as leading to new accredited learning programmes, business start-ups and evaluation studies the projects are having a direct impact on policy formulation at regional and national level. The programme of projects is running until December 2008, culminating in a conference presenting the projects' successes and giving participants and regional stakeholders the opportunity to discuss ways of sustaining the projects and implementing learning outcomes.