Building the KTP pipeline

The university wanted to upskill their early career researchers, and also build a pipeline of opportunities for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), where a researcher works with a company for 18 months to transfer new capability into the company, and that ideally leads to a full-time role in the company on completion of the programme.

We took a cohort of early career researchers through a training programme designed to build their capability and confidence to work with industry. A key component of the course was conducting research into companies and markets and identifying opportunities to deploy the researchers’ capability.

Each person selected a company and built a pitch to make to the leadership team there – outlining the problem or opportunity that the company faced, why it was difficult to crack, the capability that the university and researcher could bring, and their track record of delivery.

At the same time, the researchers received a good grounding in the practices and behaviours involved in working with industry and in how to deliver a consulting support or technology deployment project efficiently and effectively.

On completion of the training programme, university staff had a series of opportunities for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships to pitch to companies, and a cohort of researchers eager to deliver them.

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