Essex up for three awards at prestigious Innovate UK awards

The University of Essex’s success in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) has been honoured with three finalist nominations in Innovate UK’s KTP Awards 2022.

KTPs are an established and successful initiative, bringing together businesses and research expertise, and Essex is currently the top university in the UK for active KTPs.

With more than 800 inspiring collaborations currently happening across the country, the KTP Awards recognise the people and partnerships behind the UK’s most inspiring and successful KTP projects.

Professor Berthold Lausen, from our Department of Mathematical Sciences, and Dr Faiyaz Doctor, from our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, are both finalists in the KTP Academic of the Year category and our KTP team, part of our Research and Enterprise Office, is a finalist in the Best Knowledge Base KTP Support Team category.

Harnessing artificial intelligence for business success

Professor Lausen has been shortlisted for his KTP with London-based Profusion, a data consultancy that specialises in predictive modelling, email marketing, business intelligence and customer satisfaction.

The partnership has been focused on developing a new product called AI Marketer, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to empower businesses and charities to make smarter, more targeted campaigns. This new marketing tool will streamline campaigns for customers and provide more accurate and timely recommendations for an improved customer experience.

Professor Lausen, whose knowledge of data science approaches have also been invaluable to the success of the KTP, said: “In our Department of Mathematical Sciences, our KTPs are at the heart of developing, growing, and delivering cutting edge Masters courses in data science and substantial impact in industry and society. It provides our students with excellent opportunities and understanding of what the needs of data science in industry, society and government are. It is only possible as a team achievement with our KTP partners, academics, our Research and Enterprise Office and Innovate UK.”

Awards shortlist for embedding data-driven solutions

Dr Doctor has been shortlisted for his KTP with the Mediterranean Shipping Company, to better utilise its operational and financial data using AI and simulation modelling.

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is a world leader in global container shipping and haulage and the main objective of the project is to embed data-first decision-making, by channelling the vast data resources to develop predictive modelling capacity, with the intention of improving efficiency and accuracy across their supply chain.

Thanks to Dr Doctor’s support, with hardly a year since the start of the project, the KTP has already attained some key achievements.

"It is truly an honour to be nominated for the KTP Awards 2022 Academic of the Year,” said Dr Doctor. “This achievement is only made possible by the continued success and long-term aspirations of our partnership with Mediterranean Shipping Company UK.”

He added: “Our ambitious KTP project is to develop cutting edge geometric deep learning and dynamic optimization techniques for reducing container shortages and improving order fulfilment across MSCs UK and global shipping and haulage supply chain.”

Our outstanding KTP team is up for national award

Our dedicated KTP team has grown the KTP portfolio at Essex from eight projects in 2017 to over 40 projects in 2022, with no signs of this growth rate slowing. This has seen Essex became the number one institution in the UK for active KTPs in the last year.

Part of Business Engagement within the Research and Enterprise Office, the KTP team is dedicated to looking after the portfolio from early scoping conversations to partnership and project development, through application stage and throughout the project life cycle right up to final reports.

Rob Walker, Head of Business Engagement at Essex said: “As a team we’re delighted to be shortlisted for this prestigious award. Essex prides itself on the growth of its KTP portfolio and the ecosystem this enables, so being recognised for the support we offer to business and academic partnerships makes all the hard work worth worthwhile.

Our KTP partnerships are rarely the beginning and end of a relationship with a business, and as a team we are continuously looking for follow-on opportunities and ways to add value for our partners.”

The Innovate UK KTP Awards 2022 will take place on 12 October.

The University of Essex will host its own Celebration of Innovation on 29 September 2022 with an evening of networking, inspirational talks, transformational innovations, and celebrating outstanding partnerships. Tickets to attend the event are available now