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Businesses, graduates and academics came together to mark the 50^th anniversary of the UK’s flagship Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme, which helps companies access Government funding to innovate.

And special guest was Richard Lamb, head of KTPs for Innovate UK, who heard about projects past and present at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ãºmv and looked to the future as it aligns with the Government’s new Industrial Strategy ambitions.

Since the university’s first KTP project back in 1978, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ãºmv has won £11m in funding for 134 projects, which have in turn generated some £60million to the local and national economy.

Among its first projects was designing the ‘frost free’ element of 1970s fridge freezers in collaboration with Hotpoint. Today’s KTPs include making high street displays immersive and developing anti-cancer compounds and testing and scaling sustainable fabrics with industry, preventing mountains of waste materials being sent to landfill.

Mr Lamb said: “It’s great to see how KTPs are embraced at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ãºmv. KTPs are the longest running business support programme in the world, and 50 years is an achievement we are very, very proud of.”

KTPs link a business with a challenge to an academic who has expertise in that area, and an associate – normally a recent graduate who can be undergraduate to PhD level - who is then employed to work solely on the project for typically 12 months to three years, acting as a vehicle for university expertise to be transferred into the business. They are embedded in the business and are supervised by the academic and business jointly.

Helen Donnellan, Director of Research, Business and Innovation at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ãºmv, described KTPs as “one of the best-kept secrets in university-business collaboration”.

She said: “KTPs bring together the best of business and academia, unlocking skills and innovation that simply wouldn’t happen otherwise.  I’m delighted that in the past few months, three KTP associates who have been offered full time roles with the companies they’ve worked in.”

A panel discussion featured KTP associate Matthew Needham and Dr Kevin Farrugia, working together on a project to make fingermark testing more environmentally friendly, and Professor Sally Doughty and Clare Lewis from dance company FABRIC, whose KTP has helped identify new customers and funding streams.

Mr Lamb was also given a tour of three live KTP projects including the fingermark research with West Technology Limited, work to develop a sustainable cancer compound with Fluid Science Ltd, led by Dr Federico Brucoli and Dr Ketan Ruparelia and a tour of the textile testing facilities run by Professor Jinsong Shen, Dr Edward Smith and Sam Thornton.

Professor David Proverbs, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), praised the programme’s unique ability to blend academic expertise with business needs. He said: “The results speak for themselves in terms of innovation, growth, and impact that reaches far beyond individual projects.

“Our message today is simple: if you’re looking for expertise, talent and collaboration, there’s a door open for you here at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ãºmv.”