Knowledge transfer programme

[CT1212]

Have you tried the knowledge transfer programme with universities in the past? I understand businesses need to pay 33% of the project costs. Has it been worth your while?

Many thanks.

 

[J_A_M_E_S]

We have had three of these in the past.
Two were very successful (so much so that the students have moved on to very good jobs in their specialist fields). One wasn't as sucessful, but this can be put down in equal parts to the student's strengths not being fully aligned with our preferred solutions for the project (which, as a research project were not able to be fully identified at the beginning of the project), and Covid also had a bearing on the completion of this particular project.

In my experience, it's as much about the link up with the University (meaning the KTP Advisor and the Lead Academic) as the Associate (Student) that will be working with you. The flexilibility of which will allow you to make changes and react to new information throughout the duration of the project to suit business needs (within obvious parameters).

Local Management Committee (LMC) Meetings are usually held on-site quarterly throughout the process to monitor progress, check on budgets and present findings.

Your company also gets access to the facilities of that particular University department for the duration of the KTP (e.g. Science = Labs; IT = Tech; Product Design = 3D Printing, etc.).

It's fairly intensive to get one set up to begin with, but we've forged a pretty solid relationship with a couple of Universities over the years because of these - and probably more importantly, with some key people.

Essentially you get then beneftit of a £75k value qualified student to work for 1, 2 or 3 years for a £25k commitment - but remember that your collective company commitment (time) in making this a success probably makes this 33% financial commitment more like 50%.

 

[Dork Lard]

I'm out of the need for this sort of thing at my age, but a Co' I worked for in the 80's asked a university engineering dept' to have a look at a particular manufacturing problem. The solution that came back was brilliant & gave the Co' a huge competetive advantage for many years. I was told how our engineer's were so involved in current practices that they were unable to think outside the box. It can often take a fresh mindset to look at a problem & see a different way to do things & who better to do this than the next wave.