North West Science Network

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Programme, Maths in Science Days | NWSN 2022 233.8 KB PDF

The North West Science Network is a partnership between Corpus Christi College and schools in the North West.

The partnership is between Corpus Christi College, Cheshire Colleges South and West (Crewe), Xaverian College (Manchester), and Blackburn College (Lancashire) which aims to engage Year 12 students from the North West with research-level science and scientists. Events take place across the year both locally and in Oxford.

Photo Credit (above): Karl Harrison

What is the North West Science Network?

Research and teaching fellows from the University of Oxford and other research-intensive universities deliver a series of lectures across the scientific disciplines, whilst the Science Network also provides students from the North West with the opportunity to visit regional laboratories (such as SuperSTEM at Daresbury), attend local 'Maths in Science' Spring Events, and attend a summer school at Corpus. The scheme aims to reach as many students as possible, with lectures particularly large in scale (places on lab visits and residential events are limited).

The North West Science Network 2024-25

Summer School

The Summer School took place from Monday 23 June to Friday 27 June 2025 at Corpus Christi College. The Network invited 30 school students to attend the week-long residential, and they took part in lectures, tutorials, workshops, science experiments and visited the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy! During the week, the attendees worked on a poster project in groups, with Ben Griffiths, Georgia Bunyan, and Ryane Xu the winners of the competition!

Launch

This year's launch took place on Wednesday 9 October 2024, at Blackburn College. Jon Lloyd, Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University of Manchester, gave a talk titled 'What lies beneath... and why you should care'. This focused on how microbes within our Earth's crust interact with metal particles, and the potential positive and negative environmental impacts as a result.

The launch was coupled with a Careers/HE Fair, in which we had a stand that included a demonstration from our Materials Science department, using chocolate!

‘I immediately felt like I could belong and thrive at Corpus Christi. It’s a space that encourages students to ask questions and be curious about what they are learning and facilitates them in answering them. The summer school program is an eye opening opportunity to explore new ways of being scientists and researchers, while keeping community and forming connections at the forefront.’- NWSN Summer School participant 2025

‘This experience was amazing, it gave a great insight into life at Oxford, the consensus was that this was an amazing trip, with amazing staff and ambassadors guiding the experience throughout. Would recommend to come :)’- NWSN Summer School participant 2025

Student voices

"The North West Science Network had a massive impact on my decision to study materials science. There were a number of lectures I attended run by the NWSN around Manchester and Cheshire that gave me an insight into interesting areas of science outside of my A-Level studies."

Jack, Materials Science