Business School’s ‘outstanding’ KTP hat-trick

An academic whose expertise helped a leading North Wales company win an £82m defence contract has won a third ‘outstanding’ accolade for knowledge transfer.

Cardiff University specialists developed a toolset to improve Denbighshire-based Qioptiq’s inventory forecasting operations.

The company brought in Cardiff Business School’s expertise in a bid to improve forecasting, create leaner supply chains and reduce costs.

Professor Aris Syntetos led the two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership, which enabled an Associate in ‘lean’ inventory forecasting, Thanos Goltsos, to work directly with Qioptiq under the supervision of Professor Mohammed Naim.

The innovation project helped Qioptiq secure a six-year deal with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to service night visions equipment.

Bestowed by a panel of expert judges from Innovate UK, the honour marks a third ‘outstanding’ success for Professor Syntetos following two earlier KTPs with Panalpina – a global leader in supply chain solutions.

The results delighted the Swiss-based company, leading it to support what is now the Panalpina Centre for Manufacturing and Logistics Research (PARC).

Welcoming the hat-trick, Professor Syntetos said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the recognition we have received. It’s a tribute to everyone involved, from Thanos’s outstanding research – which brought major economic benefits to one of Wales’s most innovative companies – to the dedicated supervision of Professor Naim. And the success of the two previous KTPs was down to the talents and hard work of the supervisors Dr Franck Lacan and Dr Xun (Paul) Wang, and the KTP Associates Nicole Ayiomamitou, Fevos Charalampidis and Rishi Pawar.”

Paul Thomas, Business Manager with Research, Innovation and Enterprise Services at Cardiff University, said: “It’s another great success story in our long history of working with organisations through the KTP scheme. The University has put together more than 200 KTPs with both small and global organisations, from major companies to charities, since the scheme started in the 1970s, adding tangible economic and social value.”