Be part of UK's longest and most successful knowledge transfer programme
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) give academics an opportunity to apply their expertise and knowledge in a commercial context, and develop business-relevant teaching and research materials. By working with companies on a KTP project, you can easily identify new research themes and develop rich case studies for student projects.
Management KTP (mKTP)
Just like the classic KTP, mKTP projects also involve a 3-way partnership between the company, academic team and a suitably qualified graduate ('the Associate'). The main focus of an mKTP is to trigger a culture change within the organisation and to enable transformational improvements by identifying strategic, management-based initiatives that help to increase business resilience, financial performance and long-term sustainability using your cutting edge expertise.
Hear from Dr Nisreen Ameen from the School of Business and Management and our industry partner Laura Cioffi, CEO of Vertis Media Ltd., who took part in the pilot Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) Partnership.
For more information, please visit the mKTP website and get in touch today.
Frequently asked questions
What can I expect from a KTP program?
Participating in a KTP project provide our academic staff an opportunity to apply knowledge and expertise to solve real-world problem. Academic supervisors can build a long-term relationship with the businesses, generate new research interests, identify undergraduate and postgraduate projects and develop teaching materials. It also enables the academics to show research impact to the real-world case studies with grant income which can be counted to the REF submission.
What is my commitment to a KTP?
As an academic supervisor, each KTP project requires you to commit 10% of your time (half day a week) to support the KTP project. Supervisors must be available to work on the project, which includes regular visits to the business and project meetings.
What support is provided?
The KTP team at Royal Holloway assist in the ongoing development and the daily management of the KTPs from inception to completion. The team will help to check the Fact Finding From, arrange the initial discussion with the business partner, support the application form, associate recruitment through to the Final Reporting at the end of the project.
How will the Associate be recruited?
The recruitment would be open to everyone, and the vacancy will be advertised on the university vacancy pages, on the KTP website, as well as job.ac.uk.
How much does a KTP cost?
The cost of the KTP is partly funded by an Innovate UK grant and a monthly contribution from the business partner. An SME is expected to contribute 33% of the total project cost (around £35,000/year), a Large company contributes 50% (around £55,000/annum), a third sector company contributes 25% with (around £28,000/year).
Project budget
| Cost category | Standard costs |
| Contribution to associate employment costs | £45K (£48K in London) |
| Associate development | £2K |
| Equipment, consumables and other costs | £2K (standard can ask for more) |
| Half a day per week support from Royal Holloway knowledge base supervisor | Varies |
| Estate costs (this includes the use of existing facilities and anything chargeable within the knowledge base. Normally this will be zero as the associate is located at the business partner's premises) | Varies |
| Additional associate support (these are the costs for managing the associate, such as computing, personal admin, learning recourses and secretariat support to the LMC) |
Varies |
KTP in numbers
KTP statistics
Research related benefits exceeded expectations:
On average, each KTP project produces:
