On Thursday 2 May, the KTP team at Queen's won 'Outstanding Contribution from a Knowledge Base KTP Support team' at the Innovate UK KTP Best of the Best 2019 awards.

The KTP Best of the Best awards recognise and celebrate the strength and diversity of impact delivered through KTP-supported industry-academic partnerships. The Best KTP Support Team award was judged on the Knowledge Base's influence and support in sustaining high-quality performance in KTP, or supported and influenced a significant increase in participation in KTP.

As further evidence of the continued success of KTP at Queen's, Queen's has reached a collaboration milestone, achieving a portfolio of over 50 live Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.

Richard Lamb, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Programme Manager for Innovate UK – collators of the portfolio figures – congratulated the team on their achievement:

"To have grown the KTP portfolio by 60% in the last 5 years would be an achievement for any university, but to have over 50 live projects and a strong pipeline of new projects suggests that Queen's University Belfast are doing something very special to engage with business and their academics. I wish more universities could replicate their success!"

Commenting on these recent successes, Lorraine Marks, Head of KTP and Business Engagement Programmes at Queen's, said:

"The KTP scheme has been running in the UK for nearly 45 years and for 25 of those years, Queen's University Belfast has been leading KTP development and delivery, working with over 400 companies, the majority of which are SMEs. KTP is held in high regard within Queen's and the programme has been the foundation for many research and teaching successes including 15 National KTP Awards.

"The KTP team delivers an exemplary service to our company partners, academic researchers and the KTP Associates; our focus is on supporting them so that that they achieve the best outcomes from their Partnerships.

"To have our activities recognised by Innovate UK and the wider KTP community is hugely gratifying and we will continue to build on this achievement."

The KTP Best of the Best Awards are delivered for Innovate UK by the Knowledge Transfer Network. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme aims to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. KTPs are funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK as part of the government's Industrial Strategy.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a three-way partnership between companies, graduates and academics. KTPs primarily help businesses to innovate and grow, but their symbiotic nature also benefits the graduates who work in these businesses for a project's duration and the academic or research organisation who recruits the graduate for the position.

Read more on the KTP Best of the Best Awards here.

The @QUBelfast KTP Team are proud to announce that we have won the @ktnuk_ktp KTP Best of the Best Award for Best Knowledge Base Team.@KTPatQUB @QUBstaff #ktpawards #proud pic.twitter.com/IaYEMEjyN6

— KTP at Queen's (@KTPatQUB) 2 May 2019