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Bringing innovation to complex business challenges through knowledge transfer - Research and Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024
As part of our Research and Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024, we are proud to share a series of blog posts celebrating our award nominees. In this post, Kirstie Frenneaux, Funding Support Manager in the Research and Enterprise team, shares how our Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) team is going from strength to strength, with projects spanning pet food to pistachios to professional football referees. Their dedicated support has led to a team nomination in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Professional category.
The KTP team were delighted to hear that we had been nominated for the inaugural Research and Knowledge Exchange Professional Award this year, and we are looking forward to joining colleagues to celebrate at the Festival in November.
It has been an exciting year for KTP at Leeds Beckett University - we have increased the number of KTP projects we actively manage and deliver - currently 20 - and we are currently ranked just outside the top 10 of universities nationally.
KTPs build on the research already undertaken by our academic colleagues. Our current projects tackle a range of complex business challenges, across a variety of sectors, with over 75% located in Yorkshire and Humber.
Not only do these projects deliver solutions and commercial impact for businesses, but they also support government agendas to boost innovation, support local economies and tackle the Net Zero agenda. KTPs also support our university strategy for Research and Knowledge Exchange by strengthening research links, providing ‘live’ case studies and enabling publications and contributions at conferences.
This year we have focused on extending the reach of our KTPs, engaging with academic colleagues who have not previously been involved in a project.
We launched our Community of Practice – which has grown to a network of 80 academics – and we host quarterly events to help encourage knowledge sharing and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
The LBU KTP team: l-r Michelle Clare, Jo Griffiths, Kirstie Frenneaux and Rosi Newman
The new year will also see the second of our academic training days where we invite academics who are new to KTP to develop their skills in scoping potential proposals.
We now have KTP active academics in six out of our nine schools - but we are always on the look-out for more projects and would welcome the opportunity to talk to anyone who might be curious to find out more.
As a result of these initiatives our projects have become more diverse - from pet food and pistachios to professional football referees and beyond.
We were delighted to win our first public sector KTP and first Third Sector KTP. For our team of four the variety and impact of our projects along with the talented associates (including six Leeds Beckett graduates) who deliver them make our work incredibly rewarding – no two days are ever the same.
As the year draws to a close, we have much to look forward to. In November, we will attend the National KTP Awards, where we have received our second consecutive nomination for Best Knowledge Base Support Team Award. After narrowly missing out last year, we hope this will be our year. Additionally, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of KTP, and we are already planning ways to celebrate this milestone.
Please get in touch with the team for any more information about KTP.
Kirstie Frenneaux
Kirstie Frenneaux is a Funding Support Manager in the Research and Enterprise Services team at Leeds Beckett University, collaborating with businesses and academic colleagues to ensure the successful management and delivery of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects.
