University Helps Six Businesses Take a Technology Leap

The University of Nottingham has been awarded funding worth a total of £1.2m to help six small and medium sized businesses develop new technologies and  ideas.The funding, which has been secured from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), is for Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects with businesses in a range of industries. 

A UK-wide programme, KTPs taking part in the scheme typically receive between £80,000 and £120,000 in funding in order for them to work with a University.

Three businesses are based in the East Midlands: PEM (Power Electronic Measurements) of Long Eaton, Delta Rail, based in Derby and Integrated Transport Planning Ltd from Nottingham.

The University is running two KTP projects with PEM, the first to design new methods of DC current measurement and the second to develop and build high frequency current sources to calibrate and assess the effectiveness of wide-band current probes.

 Chris Hewson, Chief Executive of PEM, said: “We were very pleased at how simple The University of Nottingham made the process of applying for the KTPs and to get both projects approved is excellent news. We are now looking forward to progressing these exciting new developments.”

Three businesses from outside the region also successful in their KTP applications with The University of Nottingham included Veripos in Norwich which is working with the University to develop high accuracy satellite-based positioning for commercial applications; Photek, near Hastings which manufactures tubes and camera systems for photon detection and Krow Communications, a creative and advertising agency based in London and Birmingham.

Dan King, Head of Knowledge Transfer at the University, added: “We are serious about helping local small and medium sized enterprises drive economic growth in their businesses through exploiting our research expertise. We are increasingly working with smaller local businesses through projects such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships project and several other initiatives which are designed to help them become more innovative and improve their competitiveness through developing and expanding their products and services.”

For more information about KTPs contact the team at: ktp@nottingham.ac.uk or visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/ktp