Ways to Collaborate

We can work jointly on grant-funded projects where some of the funding comes from external sources such as those that come under UKRI (the national funding agency).

Projects directly sponsored with a 1-1 relation between the external sponsor (funder-partner) and us  – on a particular scope of work, and guaranteed access to the research results. This could be via PhD studentships, sponsoring research projects involving academics and post-doctoral researchers, research fellowships and internship opportunities for Masters Project. 

PhD studentship projects are longer term projects spanning 3-4 years (for full time) and for problems that need novel solutions. These could be fully funded by industry/external partner and in some cases (such as CDTs and iCase) they could be supported by government grants. As well as sponsoring researchers, partners can attend or host workshops, host researcher secondments or mini projects, or provide data/software. 

Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a kind of collaborative grant project where the knowledge and skills from the University are embedded into the business through the employment of one or more highly skilled graduates (the Associate) backed by an academic mentor. The Associate is recruited jointly at the beginning of the partnership to work specifically on the project, and is employed by the University. The Associate works within your company and is jointly supervised by you and the academic partner. KTP is part-funded by a government grant, allowing you to access the expertise you need to innovate whilst being cost effective. They are generally 1-3 years in duration.

Gifts are charitable contributions for which the company (donor) does not receive any tangible benefits in return, though they qualify for tax treatment as charitable contribution by donor. Gifts can be completely unrestricted or restricted for use in a specific area (e.g. faculty, department, research group etc.), by an individual (e.g. an academic) and/or for a specific purpose (e.g. research, PhD student, equipment etc). 

Projects can fall under the category of consultancy where the industry/external partner pays based on per-day rates/small piece of work. We offer a dedicated consultancy service, enabling staff to share their skills and apply their research expertise to help a wide range of organisations.