Friday 16 07 2021
University of the West of Scotland (UWS) continues to spearhead Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme, as it adds four new projects to its portfolio, which is now worth more than £7 million, yielding a predicted economic impact of £50m*.
The recent wins, which include three management KTPs – strategic change projects, funded by the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, that partner companies with business school academics to significantly enhance management capability - reaffirms UWS’ place as the number one university in the UK for programmes of this type.
The new projects also include a second successful bid for award-winning mobility solutions and technology company Phoenix Instinct, who in partnership with the University designed an ultralight wheelchair, the Phoenix i, which won the Global Toyota Mobility Unlimited Challenge in December 2020.
The wheelchair features an intelligent centre of gravity, giving enhanced ease of pushing, agility and stability functions never seen before in wheelchairs, including lightweight power assist to make slopes easier to ascend. The second phase of the project will look at embedding new ‘smart’ sensors and systems integration to enhance performance, connectivity and the overall experience for the wheelchair user.
The three successful management KTP bids were, Edinburgh-based artisan bread maker, Bash’D; Kube Networks, a successful Glasgow-based digital connectivity solutions provider; and Digitonic a mobile technology marketing agency headquartered in Glasgow, with offices in London, New York and India. Each project is tailored to the company’s individual needs, but will include elements of leadership and strategy; organisational change; business process management; and digital transformation, helping to not only enhance management capability, but build resilience and agility in support of business growth.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are a flagship programme from Innovate UK and form a collaboration between a business, an academic institution and a graduate. The graduate is employed by the academic institution as a ‘KTP Associate’ who works full-time at the business involved, under the guidance of an expert academic team. This three-way partnership forges strong ties between industry and academia and helps to deliver solutions to real-world problems.
Professor Milan Radosavljevic, Vice-Principal, Research, Innovation & Engagement at UWS said: “We are incredibly proud of our growing KTP portfolio. It is testament to the commitment to purposeful research and business-to-university interaction. The bridge that it provides between academia and industry helps to spark genuine, globally-relevant innovation, which spans a range of sectors and makes a real impact.
As we move forward into a post-pandemic environment, strong and successful collaboration is more important than ever, and UWS is extremely well placed to continue to deliver world-class partnership projects.
Professor Milan Radosavljevic, Vice-Principal, Research, Innovation & Engagement at UWS
Dr Stuart McKay, Senior KTP Manager at UWS, added: “Dream, believe, achieve is UWS’ motto and our KTP programme stands testament to this approach. UWS rising from outside the top-fifty in the UK three years ago, to number one in the UK for management KTPs, and top-five in the UK by overall portfolio size as of July 2021.
I put this success down to a combination of factors: the applied nature of what we do, an academic resource with a history of engagement with industry and a focus on delivery of pragmatic, yet highly innovative, solutions to real-world problems.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships will continue to be a strategic priority at UWS, transforming research outputs into business, economic and societal impact.
Dr Stuart McKay, Senior KTP Manager at UWS
UWS was the first University in Scotland to offer a dedicated KTP Centre and currently works with a portfolio of over 30 companies, across industries including science; engineering; food and drink; business; and the creative industries, to deliver innovation and world-class outcomes. Projects last between 12 and 36 months and are grant funded at up to 67 per cent for SMEs and 50 per cent for large companies.
*Figure taken from an independent report commissioned by Innovate UK which outlines the predicted Gross Value Add of portfolios between £7 million and £8.1 million.