UK companies profit from Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

摘要

The UK government is providing part of the funding for university graduates to work in those businesses creating innovative, future-focused products and services. Succinctly put, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) initiative is about subsidizing top graduate talent to work on specialist projects for up to three years. The rationale is that it unlocks the expertise of the universities in the favour of business. It's a simple formula that can boast a number of early successes. There is a procedure to go through, of course. It isn't a completely red tape free zone, but remarkably 90 percent of applications have so far been accepted. The application process involves an initial discussion with a KTP consultant to discuss the potential of the project, followed by a submission to the Partnership Approvals Group. A small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) can expect to have around 60 percent of its costs covered, requiring an annual investment of £16,000-£18,000 per year per KTP associate. For those with more than 250 staff, 40 percent of costs are usually covered. The secret to success is to target high yield projects - recurring annual profits before tax of £156,000 should be targeted. KTP associates have full access to university facilities - they are technically a university employee - and have a senior academic as supervisor. All of which is brought to bear on achieving identified corporate objectives. There have been a number of successes to date. Here are just three of them.