KTP (or Knowledge Transfer Partnership) is offered by the DTI (UK Department of Trade and Industry) which aims to promote collaboration between 'Knowledge Bases,' such as universities, and industry or public organisations.
The KTP scheme works by the Knowledge Base employing a graduate or graduates to work on a project that is strategically important to the future of the company or organisation. The project can last between 1 and 3 years (usually 2) – if 3 years then the graduate can register for a PhD at UCL (subject also to meeting the normal academic criteria for doing a PhD of course).
The budget per person is set at about £44k per annum for a project in London, of which the company pay about £18k, the Government paying the rest plus an overhead of about £11k. This represents very good value for the company.
The whole scheme is based on the benefits for the company or organisation, the Knowledge Base and the graduate who does the work (The Associate). Keys points are:
UCL has about a dozen KTP schemes at the moment. Departments participating include Computer Science, the Bartlett, Chemical, Mechanical, Electronic and Electrical and Geomatic Engineering and Medical Physics. The Management Studies Centre, Department of Geography and the Academic Centre for Anaesthesia have also been involved.
Over the last five years, UCL has been awarded about 35 programmes to the total value of about £4M.
Duncan Bull, in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems, runs the UCL KTP Centre, co-ordinating KTP activities with UCL and providing a support service for those departments participating, including UCLIC. If you would like some more information, please either email Anna Cox or Duncan Bull.