Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Denise Downs Regional Office

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Knowledge Transfer PartnershipsDenise Downs
Regional Office
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KTP Quick Introduction

• Why do you need to know
• KTPs are an interesting way of engaging with
  business, they are subject to FEC and the money
  is counted to our research income and the RAE.
  KTP has been around for 30 years!
• What is a KTP -
• A part funded project by DTi or a research
  council to undertake business innovation and
  development within a company via an academic and
  new graduate working closely with them
  bringing tangible business benefits between 12
  months and 3 years project we receive FEC
• Where in our institution currently?
• Most active are HUBS, CE. Currently applying
  for ones for HH, Applied Sciences

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Overview

• Europes most successful Knowledge Transfer
  Programme

A DTI Business Support Solution Managed on behalf
of the DTI by Momenta, a Division of AEA
Technology Plc
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KTP Mission

• To strengthen the competitiveness, wealth
  creation and economic performance of the UK by
  the enhancement of knowledge transfer and skills
  and the stimulation of innovation through
  collaborative projects between business and the
  knowledge base.
• The knowledge base can be HE, FE, Research
  Organisations. HE have been running programmes
  for a long while, the introduction of FE as a
  possible partner is relatively new.

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Benefits
Improve Productivity competitiveness in
Company
Strategic Company-Based Project
Knowledge Transfer Partnership
Enhances Knowledge Bases Relevance to Business
Enhances Graduate Career(s)
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Financial Grant Support OLD SYSTEM

• Small Company first Partnership 60
• Large Company first Partnership 40
• Set Budget with areas to apply for extra funds in
  special cases.
• Year 1 budget
• Standard Budget 40k
• SME Contribution 16k (40)
• Grant 24k 9.5k overheads
• Benefit to KB Partner 10.5k direct
• 9.5k indirect
• Budget includes costs to replace academic in
  institution for half day per week, admin support,
  equipment for associate, training budget for
  associate, travel graduate employed by college
  (there are various models if this is an issue)

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Technology Transfer areas

• Private sector except banking, insurance, tourism
  and sport.
• Public sector NHS, education but not HE or FE
  (Local authority, schools, education related
  organisations)
• Charities and social enterprises but need to
  check
• Any area within a business Marketing, BPR, HR,
  Product development, Manufacturing, Quality, IT
  Systems

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Example Programmes

• DCA
• Research Company, ICT all outsourced (had a
  number of issues that not being resolved), did
  everything by spreadsheets and took approx 2 days
  per week to re-calculate project plans, lots of
  paper information that got refreshed daily,
  brought ICT in house, new server and network, put
  new systems in place, ICT policies re passwords
  etc, intranet, data warehouse and document
  management
• Solved some of issues very quickly through an
  intranet, looked for quick wins to gain
  enthusiasm with staff

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Example Programmes

• Motorworks
• Sell specialist bike parts have number of
  experts who dealt with sales over phone so could
  source equivalent part for example. Put in
  eCommerce system with full stock control etc
  increased sales substantially

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Zeina Foods

• Family business importing, processing and selling
  nuts and dried fruit
• KTP was marketing focused but quickly realised
  was as much about culture change and implementing
  change given not had such a strategic focus
  before
• Shifted from one product supplier to range,
  improved internal communications, established 3
  brands for different markets (Nutz, flavours of
  the world) and improved external marketing,
  benchmarked processes and now have continuous
  improvement strategy
• Also achieved cultural change, implement ERP
  system, staff reward system, appraisals .