Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP): 2024 to 2025 round four

UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £9 million to fund innovation projects with businesses or not for profits.

Provided by: Innovate UK

Scheme details

Area: Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, County Durham, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Northumberland

Categories: Finance & funding, Grant

Business stage: Trading business

Competition opens: Monday 30 September 2024
Competition closes: Wednesday 4 December 2024 11:00am

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme allows a UK registered business or not for profit organisation, (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’ from now on) to partner with a ‘knowledge base partner’, which is either a UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult.

The KTP partnership brings new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. The knowledge base partner recruits the ‘associate’ to work on the project. The associate has the opportunity to lead a strategic development within the business, developing new skills and gaining valuable experience.

Guidance on how to apply for a KTP is available.

Each application must be led by a knowledge base, working with a business partner and supported by a knowledge transfer adviser.

If you are a business and do not yet have a relationship with a knowledge base partner, the knowledge transfer adviser can help you to identify one.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

Project size

A project’s total eligible costs are £8,500 per month. Projects must be between 12 and 36 months. A proportion of the knowledge base partners costs will be funded by Innovate UK. The rest of the eligible project costs are paid by the business partner.

Eligibility summary

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered higher education or further education institution, RTO or Catapult
  • collaborate with a UK registered business, eligible public sector organisation, charity or charitable business with two or more full-time employees

The business must contribute to the project’s costs.

Take the next step...

For further information about this scheme, including how to apply, visit the provider website.

Find out more