Faculty of Science Working with business & industry

Strathclyde is renowned as a place of useful learning and provides opportunities for businesses, charities and non-governmental organisations to interface with world-class research, training and expertise across a wide range of scientific disciplines and departments.

Organisations have different knowledge exchange needs with varying budgets and time scales and so we provide a flexible approach to company collaboration.

Examples include

  • Sample analysis and characterisation
  • Undergraduate or Master's projects
  • PhD Projects
  • Academic consultancies with experts in your subject area
  • Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)
  • Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Courses
  • Industrial Research Projects

If you are interested in finding out about working with us please get in touch – there are many ways to obtain funding for collaborative projects and we can advise on which may work best for you. Examples of our projects can be found in our Knowledge Exchange Leaflet.

Sign up to our Knowledge Exchange mailing list for details of future events.

Being an Innovator with a Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Beginning a new innovative project with plans for business expansion is an exciting task for a company, although it's not without its challenges, especially for a Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) with limited resources. Read Dr Neil Thomson's blog post about his experience with Rumbol Products and how they were able to overcome these challenges to succeed.

Learn more about KTPs with the Faculty of Science

Current working partnerships with industry

Strathclyde is renowned as a place of useful learning and provides opportunities for businesses, charities and non-governmental organisations to interface with world class research, training and expertise across a wide range of scientific disciplines and departments.

There are a number of organisations based within the Faculty of Science who work with industry:

  • Strathclyde Innovations in Drug Research facilitates links with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
  • Centre for Process Analytics and Control Technology is a consortium of seven universities and 15 companies undertaking research, training and knowledge exchange to support manufacturing excellence
  • The Institute of Photonics is a commercially oriented research unit with the key objective to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial application and development in the area of photonics, through excellence in commercially relevant research and its use
  • CMAC (Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation) is working in partnership with industry members to transform medicines manufacture. The CMAC National Facility offers contract research support through the delivery of services within crystallisation process development & understanding.

In 2011 Strathclyde was chosen as the exclusive European partner university for South Korea’s Global Industry Academia Cooperation Programme (GIACP) by the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

The objective of the GIACP is to work together on research activities and the commercialisation of their outcomes between Korean SMEs and the partner University.

Scientists in the Faculty of Science have been working with three South Korean companies to bring innovative technologies to market under the new agreement. 

The UK's first Fraunhofer Research Centre is based at the University.

The Centre for Applied Photonics is a strategic collaboration between the University and Fraunhofer, Europe's largest contract research organisation. The centre will provide laser research and associated technologies for a variety of sectors, including security, healthcare, energy and transport.

A number of spin out companies have been formed based upon research carried out within the Faculty. These include :

Discover more about licensing and spin-out opportunities.

Industry-based doctoral training

The Faculty has also developed an innovative industry-based doctoral training programme with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The original programme enabled GSK employees to work towards a higher research degree through their work-based research projects; success in this venture has led to the creation of an expanded programme including GSK-sponsored research students. For further details see our GSK brochure.

Contact Us

For any enquiries please contact our Vice-Dean for Knowledge Exchange, Professor John Liggat - j.j.liggat@strath.ac.uk.