The EPSRC has awarded The University of Strathclyde a £2.6M Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) to help business and industry take advantage of our research, technology and consultancy.
The KTA will be used in conjunction with other strategically committed funding sources to deliver Strathclyde’s Knowledge Transfer (KT) Escalator which aims to:
- Achieve a measurable and permanent step change improvement in exploitation of results from our EPSRC research portfolio by UK companies
- Achieve a step change improvement in opportunity to participate in exploitation for our EPSRC-funded staff, including developing successful new start-up business based on the portfolio
- Transform permanently the University’s culture for KT, starting with our Faculties of Science and Engineering (where EPSRC funding constitutes c. 50% of our external research awards)
- Address the disciplinary “silo” barrier to exploitation; by facilitating multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary alignment within 5 key industry sectors
These aims will be achieved via three programmes, which have been designed in close collaboration with a cross-section of our existing company partners, large and small:
- A Company Escalator for relevant UK businesses. This is a flexible managed programme to maximise meaningful exploitation by companies. Businesses will be “escalated” from an Emergent level via a Managed level to a strategic Framework level of engagement with our EPSRC portfolio using a range of exploitation mechanisms
- A People Escalator that escalates EPSRC-funded staff and escalator company staff from entry-level KT activity to full exploitation capability, including company start-ups based on EPSRC IPR portfolios
- A Culture Escalator that instils appreciation of our user organisations’ priorities in University thinking (and vice versa) and changes institutional structures and processes permanently to ensure that KT culture change is embedded