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send via emailGovernment scheme proves a three-way win for industrial/academic collaboration
This article explains how the UK's Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme works and the advantages of participation. It also gives some examples of the scheme in action.
A UK government minister has praised a scheme that helps mainly small companies boost their profitability and create jobs through academic collaboration. Industrial participants in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) have, on average, boosted pre-tax profitability by more than half a million dollars and added eight jobs, as well as improving staff skills. The KTP scheme also gives young graduates a chance to work on transferring academic knowledge into industry.
Margaret Hodge, minister of state for industry and the regions, said: "When an idea is matched with a high-potential business, the explosive effects spark a chain reaction to jobs, wealth and higher productivity. That is what Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are all about."
The KTP scheme has been successfully increasing the level of innovation in small- to medium-sized companies for more than 30 years, using a model based on the 'learning by doing' methods applied in teaching hospitals.
The approach was launched in 1975 as the Teaching Company Scheme, and was rebranded as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in 2003. KTPs bring together a company with a problem to be solved, an academic with a possible solution, and a recently graduated 'associate' who does the knowledge transfer by working at the company to implement the academic's ideas.
The scheme has had remarkable success in using small projects to increase innovation in small companies. Since the Teaching Company Scheme began, 3940 partnerships have been completed. At last count there were 1002 partnerships in progress, together engaged on a total of 1114 projects.
The money involved in KTPs is modest. The average budget is $108 000, with SMEs picking up one third of the total and the government footing the rest. Larger companies, with more than 250 employees, have to pay half the costs, although only 16% of KTPs go to large companies.
Projects last from 12 to 36 months. The associates who go to work in the target companies are on average 28 years old, with 77% of them having first-class or 2:1 degrees, and 38% having higher degrees. The academic supervisors provide half a day of support a week to the project.
Despite the modesty of the KTP scheme, an independent analysis of its precursor, the Teaching Company Scheme, carried out by economic consultants SQW Ltd in 2002, suggests that companies that undertake a KTP gain an average increase in profit of more than $568 000, with one company increasing its profitability by $39m. Companies that undertake KTPs also invest an average of more than $207 000 in new plant and machinery, and create eight jobs – a considerable number given that over half of companies involved in KTP schemes have less than 50 staff. About two thirds of projects manage to apply intellectual property provided by the academic commercially.
Half of the associates involved in KTPs register for a higher degree during their projects. Three-quarters of them are offered employment by their host companies.
Who pays
Funding for the KTP scheme comes through government agencies and the industrial partners. In the 2005-2006 financial year the UK government contributed £36.5m to the scheme, 14% more than the previous year. Industry contributed more than £54.7m, up 4% on the previous year.
The KTP scheme is backed by 16 government organisations including the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, the Research Councils, and the regional development agencies.
The SQW analysis shows that each $1.95m (£1m) of government investment results in 112 new jobs among KTP companies. It also leads to the training of 214 company staff, a total increase in profit before tax of more than $8.2m, and a $6.35m investment in plant and machinery.
According to Jo Stevens, marketing manager for the KTP scheme, further government organisations, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the National Health Service, have recently become sponsors "because they see the value in what we do".
"Historically everyone has called it the win-win-win situation, because everyone involved gets the benefit," she added. "It's the smaller companies that have access to academia and research whereas ordinarily they wouldn't be able to afford it."
How it works
Companies usually begin the KTP process by calling a helpline number that directs them to a regional KTP advisor, who helps them define their problem and work out what kind of academic input they need. Advisors use their local knowledge, as well as drawing on the rest of the KTP network, to find the right academic partner. Once the industrial and academic partners are happy with each other, they jointly define a project to transfer the required knowledge into the business.
Once the project is approved, each KTP is part-funded by government, with the industrial partner covering the balance of the project cost and their own cost of participation. The partners then recruit an associate with the appropriate level of education to handle the knowledge that is to be transferred. Sometimes the academic partner will have a candidate in mind for the associateship, but most posts are filled through an open recruitment process that includes advertising and posting openings on the KTP website. The associate is employed by the educational institute but works in the company to transfer and embed the knowledge, so it will remain accessible if the associate leaves the company. The associate is supported by staff from the higher education institution, whose time is charged to the project at full economic cost.
An ideal KTP project will see important knowledge transferred to the industrial partner, while the staff learns about collaborating with academia. The associate gets experience of managing a project within a business environment, as well as transferring and applying knowledge in a business. The academic partner gains exposure to commercial pressures as well as being able to test their ideas in the real world.
The reality
Many universities and regional development agencies now employ staff to act as a 'marriage broker', drawing together KTP projects. Tanya Boardman is KTP manager at the University of Surrey and has been seconded to the Surrey Enterprise Hub, an organisation backed by the South East Enterprise Development Agency, the University of Surrey, Royal Holloway College London, the University of London, and Leatherhead Food International. She says the key to making a KTP work is to ensure everyone has the same goal at the outset.
"KTPs go right when we make sure everyone has the same outlook and the same goal," she said. "We get round this problem through the application process, which has a detailed form, which helps people commit and understand to the project.
"You could argue it's just bureaucratic, but it's not."
One of Boardman's recent successes has been the formation of a KTP involving i-TRAK, a UK start-up involved in luggage tracking systems for airlines and other carriers.
Adam Dalby, managing director, said: "You don't know what is available until someone shows you."
The i-TRAK KTP is a $235 000, 30-month project with an academic at the University of Surrey and a graduate student with a BA and MA. The project draws on the expertise of Professor Paul Krause of the department of software engineering at the University of Surrey.
The idea is to re-engineer part of i-TRAK's tracking system software to make it capable of handling a great volume of transactions, as well as working with more airline systems.
"At the end of the project we will either have a solution or very good data on the problem," said Dalby.
Krause says that the project attracted him because I-TRAK is a small, low-overhead organisation that doesn't have a lot of development experience and therefore wants to use a lot of automated tools.
"My claim to them was there are things I can tell them which will reduce their staff effort," he said.
Krause's contribution will be paid for out of the project budget, with the payment to the university being ring-fenced for him to use to fund other research projects.
"One of my measures of success for the project will be in terms of research publications," said Krause. "i-TRAK's measurement will be in terms of large amounts of money flowing into their coffers."
This article first appeared in Research -Technology Management, Volume 50 Number 4 July-August 2007, entitled Industrial/Academic Collaboration is a 3-Way Win
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