Knowledge Transfer Partnership success

Some of the University's most successful Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) have been showcased in an event at the University.

Chaired by Professor Karen Holford, Pro Vice-Chancellor, College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, the event saw businesses and academics involved in KTPs share their experience, highlight their achievements and raise awareness of the opportunities available for business and academic collaboration.

Guest speakers included Howard Nicholls, Regional KTP Adviser for South East and Central Wales regions, Nick Battersby, MD REID Lifting, Professor Omer F.Rana, Professor of Performance Engineering at Cardiff University and Harsha Siani, KTP Associate at Gama Healthcare.

REID Lifting's first KTP with the School of Engineering saw the company win the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2013 for Innovation, for a lightweight, portable lifting system that was developed during the project. Further to this success, the company has recently started a second KTP project with Cardiff Business School.

Nick Battersby said: "We decided to work with Cardiff University because of their expertise, excellent testing facilities and reputation for producing high quality engineering graduates. KTPs have enabled us to build a strong relationship with Cardiff University, we have found the academics easy to work with and most importantly, that the University is extremely keen to engage with industry."

Cardiff has an impressive portfolio of KTPs and a dedicated KTP Office that provides advice, guidance and support from the inception to completion of each project. KTPs are open to any academic discipline and there are a growing number of KTP projects being undertaken within the Colleges of Biomedical & Life Sciences, and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

Professor Karen Holford said: "KTPs are an opportunity for academics to work on real business problems and establish valuable relationships between Cardiff University and industry. KTPs have enabled me to publish journal papers whilst establishing even further links with industry. The benefits and opportunities that can be achieved for both academia and business are endless. "

Paul Thomas, Business Manager at Cardiff University added: "The event demonstrated the substantial KTP success that has been achieved at Cardiff and revealed the positive impact a KTP project can have on both business and academia. Our focus is to continue to support and develop successful KTP projects with small and large companies alike, and to continue to establish long term working relationships between Cardiff University and industry."

The event, hosted by the Cardiff University KTP team and supported by the Cardiff University Innovation Network, also included an open Q&A session on the benefits of academic and business collaboration presentations. Joining the speakers for this were Karen Padmore, Operations Director of HPC Wales, Jarmila Davies, Academia Engagement Senior Manager at Welsh Government and Nick Bourne, Deputy Director and Head of Commercial Development at Cardiff University.