Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)

KTP is a world-leading programme that helps businesses succeed by connecting them to the UK's rich academic resources. It's a partnership between the business seeking expertise, a university and a recently qualified (post)graduate – known as an Associate.

Transforming your business

Any company can apply. To succeed, your project needs to be strategic and have the potential to transform your business. Your academic partner will provide the expertise and knowledge required to deliver the project. If your application is successful, an associate will work to help bring your plans to life. The associate will work on your site to embed the expertise of the academic team and bring their own skills to deliver a project which could mean anything from introducing new products to changing the company's direction.

Academic expertise

At least one academic will have been nominated to supervise the associate and form part of the team that will deliver the project. The academic has the intellectual firepower to guide and advise an associate whenever required. They can arrange access to test equipment at the University if required. In short, they're a vital part of your team and project.

Funding your project

Your project can last between 12 months and three years. If you're a small or medium-sized business, funding will cover two-thirds of the project cost, leaving an average of around £22,000 a year for your company to pay. If you're part of a larger company, funding will cover around half of the project cost, leaving an average of around £33,000 a year to pay. That's great value, especially as evidence shows that businesses, who invest in R&D, grow twice as fast and have higher exports compared to non-innovators.‌

Qualifying KTP Details

Important Deadline Dates

Forthcoming call end dates

Deadline date	Call
20/09/2017	Infrastrutcure Systems
11/10/2017	Health & Life Sciences
08/11/2017	Emerging and Enabling Tech
17/01/2018	Manufacturing & Materials
07/02/2018	Open Call
14/03/2018	Infrastrutcure Systems

What are the benefits for companies?

Start a strategic relationship with the University,
Find highly qualified people to spearhead new projects,
Access expertise to take an organisation forward,
Increase profits, knowledge and capability,
Devise innovative solutions to help an organisation grow,
Develop the capacity and capability to innovate more effectively beyond the life of the KTP.

What are the benefits for academics?

Start a strategic relationship with a company,
Income counts towards the Knowledge Exchange Income of the University
Contribution to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise
Develop relevant teaching and research ideas
Supervise and act as a mentor for postgraduates working on company-board projects
Opportunity for early career researchers to gain supervision experience
Publish high-quality journal and conference papers
Apply knowledge and expertise to business problems
Assist strategic change in business

Opportunities for Associates (graduates)

A KTP is one of the UK’s largest graduate recruitment programmes which provides over 300 graduate job opportunities each year. You will be able to manage and deliver challenging strategic projects for a business, while being supported by the University. You will be based at the company on a full-time basis but jointly supervised by an academic member of staff for the duration of the project.

Benefits include:

Fast track career development opportunities
A competitive salary
Employment within chosen academic discipline
Working both with academia and industry
Training and development opportunities
Register for a higher degree during the project
Access to a wide range of our facilities including laboratories and library services.

KTP job vacancies are advertised throughout the year.

AU job vacancies are advertised throughout the year.

Who can participate?

UK based companies of all sizes from all industrial sectors
Charities and not-for-profit organisations
Education institutions (e.g. schools)
Health organisations (e.g. hospitals and NHS Trusts)
Councils and Local Authorities

Restrictions

A KTP may not be appropriate for every business. Very small businesses or very recent start-ups may not have the capacity to provide support for the Associate or the resources to commit to the project. Our KTP team will provide advice and guidance during the early discussions about the project, and will clarify whether the sponsors will be satisfied with the financial viability of your business, to ensure that your time isn’t wasted. If a KTP is not viable the team will discuss and propose alternative options.

To view previous KTP projects, please see the below Portfolio tab where you will also see an example of two full case studies.

KTP Portfolio

Company Partner	Sector	Partnership Objective
Agroceutical Products Ltd	Biosciences	To develop and document a set of records and standard operating procedures to enable galanthamine produced from daffodils to meet the regulatory requirements of the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.
Biotal Plc	Agriculture	Development of new lines of feed and forage based additives for feed grains, feed crops, crop residues and conserved crops.
Boomerang Plus plc (now Boom pictures)	Creative Industries	To investigate 7-11 year old children's television viewing preferences and multi-platform media practices, and create a model for production and delivery of children's television programming.
Dengie Crops Ltd	Biosciences	To develop, through use of selected fibrolytic enzymes, an alfalfa-based product to target the specific needs of the performance horse market and to determine the effect of the product on other dietary components.
Environment Systems	Environmental Science	To assess the challenges and opportunities that the RSGISlib and other open source image processing software (i.e. the OS-Geo stack) may bring to a geographical intelligence company in terms of scaling operations and integrating with High Performance Computing for high throughput of data.
Fluid Gravity Engineering Limited	ICT	Development of a flexible code for modelling gaseous detonations and reactive flows.
Germinal Holdings Ltd	Biosciences	To develop a molecular screening package to support the breeding, trialling, validation and marketing of novel grass varieties in the UK and worldwide.
Innovis Limited	Agriculture	To develop methodologies for grassland management and sheep nutrition, enabling deployment of an innovative novel supply chain model for the UK sheep industry.
Innovis Limited	Biosciences	To develop new genetic sheep breed improvement and products services utilising DNA technology and to expand these services to include other livestock and domestic animals.
Kaye (Presteigne) Ltd	ICT	Exploration of how computerised modelling of the aluminium casting process can be made more efficient through the construction of advanced software.
Knitmesh Limited	Advanced Materials and Manufacturing	To scientifically evaluate a new explosion arrester in order to understand the underlying mechanisms involved, to bring the product to market and to optimise design and further development of arrester products.
Micro Materials Limites	Advances Materials and Manufacturing	Development and commercialisation of a novel rotating polariser ellipsometer.
Reynolds Geo-sciences Limited	Energy and Environment	To review and acquire expertise in air/space born remote sensing and GIS within RGSL, thereby allowing the company to monitor, analyse and manage glacial hazards in a more rigorous manner.
Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems (Europe) Limited	ICT	To design and develop software tools for the efficient analysis and optimisation of new vehicle wiring harness systems, robust product design and reduce design/quotation timescales
Xenova Ltd	Biosciences	Develop new fermentation techniques for differentiation and sporulation of a unique culture collection of tropical higher fungi in order to isolate novel natural products expressed during development.

Environment Systems Full Case Study

"OSSIE- Open Source Software for Information on the Environment"

Overview

Boomerang+ Full case study

"Tween Audiences and Welsh-language Television Production: Impacts on Economic Prosperity and Cultural Life"

Overview