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Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Stimulate Business Growth in Cornwall

19 May 2021

Has your business ever heard of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme? As part of the University of Plymouth’s highly successful business engagement initiative, the KTP programme draws upon 45 years’ experience of delivering exceptional results through collaboration with the UK’s world class knowledge bases.

Part funded by Innovate UK, the KTP provides businesses with vital resources and expertise to help them innovate, increase revenue and become market leaders. The specialist support is specifically geared towards organisations who may be interested in launching technology-based, research and development type projects.

For example, Bluefruit Software, a Cornish company that specialises in embedded software development, underwent a KTP project to develop a tool to manage medical device standard compliance for agile-style software development. The need for the KTP was to conduct research and gain expertise to analyse the standards and directives that are applicable for medical devices, and to transpose these in a way that its software engineers would be able to codify.

As a result of the KTP, Bluefruit has helped to develop pioneering research for their industry, which greatly benefits the business. They now have in-house expertise, in the form of a KTP associate and their work in the medical device market has increased from 10% to 60%. The company has doubled in size in terms of turnover and Bluefruit continues to use information gained through the KTP to pursue new developments and projects for the company’s growth. You can find out more about their KTP project here.

The KTP programme runs continuously throughout the year, with approximately 5 to 6 deadlines per annum. Typically, a KTP would last between 12 and 36 months and is available to most UK business sectors and sizes.

Innovate UK will support the project by funding 67% if you are classified as a small-to-medium-sized business (SME). The remainder is funded by the business and equates to an annual cash contribution of approximately £30k for an SME and £45k for a large employer per annum.

With each KTP, there should be a demonstrable case for considerable commercial returns, wealth creation, and return on investment within the KTP application to justify the company’s and Innovate UK investment.

The dedicated KTP team at the University of Plymouth is ready to support the Partnership through every step of the journey: from application through to project implementation, completion, and evaluation. This helps ensure the smooth running of the KTP and that the maximum benefits are achieved by all partners.

To find out more – you can contact the University of Plymouth’s Innovation Funding Managers by calling 08000525600, emailing enterprisesolutions@plymouth.ac.uk or visiting: www.plymouth.ac.uk/ktp

Image of Trudy Ward at Bluefruit, their KTP Associate.

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