Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) involve the forming of a partnership between a company (the company partner) and the academic institute (knowledge base partner), enabling the company to access skills and expertise otherwise unavailable to them.
The partnership also involves one or more recently qualified persons (Associates) to facilitate this transfer of skills and expertise. The Associate works full-time within the company on a project central to its needs and is jointly supervised by company personnel and a senior academic.
A KTP is part-funded by a Government grant. A small to medium sized enterprise (SME) would be expected to contribute about a third of the costs involved in the project. The average annual contribution to the project for an SME would be from just over £20,000. This contributes to the costs of the Knowledge Base Supervisor and Associate employment and development. The business contribution to the costs of the project not only gives the business the services of your KTP Associate, but also the time and expertise of the academics or researchers working with you.
Business performance outputs vary considerably from case to case, given the variety of the projects. Latest information shows that, on average, the business benefits that can be expected from a single KTP project are:
- An increase of over £220,000 in annual profits before tax
- The creation of three genuine new jobs
- An increase in skills of existing staff.