A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a unique three-way collaboration that brings together world-class university experts, a qualified graduate and ambitious industry partners to accelerate strategic innovation and growth.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships can help your business or organisation to create a step-change in a combination of some of these areas:
- Access new expertise and embed new knowledge to drive profitability
- Apply a new technology, improve a process or develop a new market
- Develop a culture of increased productivity
- Create a culture of accelerated innovation to drive competitive advantage
- Create new ideas or Intellectual Property
- Gain access to new markets, develop new products, increase efficiency and productivity
- Gain new strategic insights with cost-effective access to the UK’s world-class knowledge base
- Access funding from the innovation agency Innovate UK or other organisations in UK Research and Innovation
A KTP is for projects with ambitious levels of innovation, impact and challenge that result in significant wealth creation. It might be a new development within your sector or a chance to enter a different market.
A project can last from 1 to 3 years in one month blocks.
Part of the cost of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is funded by a grant from the innovation agency Innovate UK, and other government co-funders. You apply for this in a competitive call for submissions.
For Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises the grant rate is 67% of the project cost and for large companies 50%. The remainder of the project cost is met by monthly cash payments from your company.
For a typical project, Oxford Brookes University offers a cost-effective opportunity to engage in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). Your company can make a modest investment per year to embed a recent graduate (KTP Associate) in your organisation, supported by senior academics and the extensive resources of our university. This collaboration brings new capabilities and the potential for wealth creation.
Businesses that participate in KTPs experience significant benefits, with the potential for notable increases in pre-tax profit. KTPs provide a platform for driving innovation, enhancing productivity, and achieving substantial financial growth.
| Employer Size | Funding Rate | Employer contribution (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Third Sector | 75% | £22-25k per year |
| SME | 67% | £28-33k per year |
| Large Business | 50% | £43-48k per year |
A key person in the partnership is the KTP Associate.
This is an ambitious recent graduate who is jointly recruited by the partners to implement the project in your business. Educated to a level appropriate for the project, the associate will be the conduit for change, transferring implementing and embedding the knowledge generated and providing feedback from you to the academic partner. The Associate will join the University’s payroll, but their place of work is in your organisation and they work as a member of your team. Academic staff from the University visit the company every week to guide and supervise the work.
The length of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships varies from 12 – 36 months, depending on the nature of the project and the requirements of your business.
Benefits to the KTP Associate:
- Employment for suitably qualified graduates to apply their knowledge to realise a key strategic innovation
- Experience of managing a challenging real-world project
- The chance to implement strategic development within an innovative company
- Opportunity to potentially acquire an additional professional qualification
- Dedicated coaching, mentoring and personal development
- The possibility of a rewarding job with the company at the end of the project.
Benefits to the KTP Associate:
If you are serious about getting ahead and you want to apply your degree knowledge, start a 'real' job straight away, and potentially gain a professional qualification, then a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) may be the perfect opportunity for you.
As an employee on a KTP programme, you’ll be pursuing challenging work and making a real impact within the company or organisation you join, helping it to innovate, grow and develop as you establish your own skills and achievements.
KTP is one of the UK's largest recruiters of recently qualified graduates. Positions are available across the UK, with up to 500 jobs created each year. Find out more about KTP as a career option or see the list of current national KTP vacancies and vacancies being advertised soon.
A successful KTP provides a rich source of innovation stories, data and testimonial to help showcase your success and raise the profile of the company or the professional standing of the academic.
As a business, KTP projects can provide a wealth of intriguing news stories, video clips and other content to add to the company’s marketing assets and engage the customer.
As an academic, groundbreaking research offers the opportunity not just to write academic papers but to collect real-world case study information for teaching purposes, as well as submissions for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the much-anticipated Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), and University website. All of this helps raise the standing of the project within the relevant research community and maybe contribute to potential joint public speaking opportunities.
Capture information
Plan to capture information for marketing use, at each key step of the journey. Think in terms of quantitative data and qualitative, visual and written assets. For example:
- Photographs - before and after if there is a visual change, but also of key personnel, the main entrance of the building and labs or company offices you are working in.
- Video – capture key moments of breakthrough or change, and interviews with personnel from the CEO to the graduate associate. This could be filmed on a smartphone (landscape style).
- Testimonial – capture written comments about how the problem has been solved or innovation achieved.
- Data – think not just about benchmarking the project but capture fun facts pertinent to the project – maybe about the amounts of raw materials used in a process or the number of hours spent brainstorming.
Oxford Brookes University will work in partnership with you to develop a successful KTP application and manage the project from start to completion – ensuring a long-term boost to your organisation. We are on hand throughout the project and will work with you:
- to help scope out the idea,
- find an academic partner,
- cost the project and create your grant application.
Take the first steps to explore a KTP opportunity with Oxford Brookes. We’ll work with you to develop a successful KTP application, recruit your KTP graduate, and partner with you to boost your business.
A KTP typically lasts between 1-3 years. Once complete many partnerships go on to apply for future funding to continue to build on their partnership either involving the same academic team or a different combination. The criteria remain the same, so be thinking about ‘next steps’ while the current project is in play and consider how the company or organisation might grow again through KTP.
