University of Essex hits record 50 active KTPs

The University of Essex has reached a significant landmark after becoming the first higher education institution in England to work on 50 active Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP).

Innovate UK has approved five new applications submitted by Essex and its partners, meaning the University is now only the second in the UK to hit a half-century of active KTPs in the last 10 years.

Essex has been involved in KTPs since 2004 and sharing the expertise and research of its academics with more than 130 partners under the programme, which is now in its 50th year.

The remit has since expanded to other non-profit organisations, with nine of Essex’s active KTPs now involving charities.

Essex Vice-Chancellor Professor Maria Fasli said: “Reaching this milestone is a testament to the enthusiasm and dedication with which colleagues at Essex engage with industry to drive innovation.

“As a university, we are committed to making a difference in the world with our research, and KTPs are a brilliant vehicle for this.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank our incredible business and charity partners for sharing their ideas with us through these projects, and for trusting us with their challenges and opportunities.”

Rob Schatten, KTP manager at Essex, said: “We are exceptionally proud to have achieved the landmark of having 50 KTPs underway concurrently.

“It is a testament to Essex’s reputation among the local, regional and national innovation community that our academic colleagues are entrusted to deliver these projects with partners of all shapes and sizes, from startups and tech specialists to manufacturers, professional services providers, farms, charities and multi-national corporations.

“Every KTP places an emphasis on delivering tangible commercial outputs for our partners and driving revenue generation.

“Our academic colleagues’ continuing support for this commercial prioritisation has played a significant part in differentiating our delivery, and has led to many word-of-mouth recommendations seeding future projects with new partners.

“I’d like to thank the over 100 Essex academics who have participated in KTPs over the last eight years, as we have grown the portfolio from nine projects in 2017 to 50 today, for their outstanding contributions to collaborative research and development.”

Three of the five new KTPs approved for funding will see academics from the School of Health and Social Care, Essex Business School, School of Computer Science and the Department of Sociology work with charities.

Among them is Royal Hospital Chelsea (Chelsea Pensioners) which will work with Essex to develop loneliness mitigation strategies and boost income streams.

Another will support the Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development (FORWARD) to develop systems impact evaluation capabilities alongside new unrestricted income generation opportunities.

Unisurge International Ltd is also working with Essex to develop a demand prediction model for surgical procedure packs for the medical supply industry.

Jan Stringer, Knowledge Transfer Advisor at Innovate UK, said: “One of the first KTPs I visited, 20 years ago, was the KTP between the University of Essex and Devlin Electronics- it has been a great honour be the designated Knowledge Transfer Adviser to the University since then- and support their amazing growth and ambition to make KTP central to their ethos, research and impact.

“I am particularly pleased how they have diversified from the traditional Computer Science and Electronic Engineering disciplines to embrace the wealth of academic excellence in the University - especially the non STEM areas of the Business School and Social Sciences and Humanities. This enriches the KTP portfolio immensely.

“I look forward to supporting their future growth in adding value to both the national and local economies.”

Essex plans to increase its KTP portfolio further with new applications in the next round of funding, meaning the number could exceed 50 later this year.

Mr Schatten added: “In recent years we have placed a sustained emphasis on broadening the range and reach of the portfolio internally and I am especially proud that there are now 12 departments, schools and institutes from across all three faculties engaged with the KTP portfolio.

“Regardless of your academic discipline, if you feel you have a partnership which could benefit from the scheme or would like to discuss engaging with KTP, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

More information about Essex’s KTPs is available via Knowledge Transfer Partnerships | University of Essex