The ‘Knowledge Partners – East of England’ project (KEEP) is a collaborative project (led by the University of Luton) between 7 HEI’s in the Eastern region sponsored by the Association of Universities in the East of England (AUEE). The project has created a ‘mini-KTP’ scheme for the Region. This enables the region to exploit the benefits of one of the Government’s most successful Knowledge Transfer (KT) schemes in a way that is more flexible and directly relevant to the needs of regional companies and the expertise of regional HEIs. Objectives are:

• To support flexible HEI-employer partnerships for all employer types, of all sizes, in any sector, public or private, where maximum benefit from knowledge transfer will arise
• To fund projects of a range of durations that meet employer needs, subject only to a minimum for cost-effectiveness (e.g. 3-months) and a maximum (e.g. 18-months) to spread resources and to ensure it complements other schemes.
• To ensure a regular flow of referrals from SME’s to HEI’s using the infrastructure of the East of England Innovation Exchange along with other existing channels.
• To actively encourage follow-on schemes with employers with a good track record
• To seek match funding from EEDA and employers thereby achieving maximum ‘gearing’ for all parties
• To create programmes across the East of England to ensure EEDA sees benefits within the regional economy

• Source organisation with a strategic need which can be met with assistance from the University
• Create joint proposal which is submitted to regional management group (committed to giving a swift response)
• Upon approval, recruit a graduate who is based with the organisation
• Support programme with an academic expert
• Strategic project carried out

• Numbers of organisations undertaking a KEEP programme
• Numbers of “programme months” undertaken
• Increase in profitability of organisation (if private sector – if public, another measure is chosen)
• Number of staff trained
• New jobs created
• Further Knowledge Transfer projects initiated (possibly KTP, CASE etc)
• Numbers of further collaborations with HEI’s generated
• IP income
• Private sector funding generated

• A scheme which has enabled many organisations to engage with HEI’s which otherwise would not have had the mechanism to do so (currently 31 programmes to date since Aug 04)
• Flexibility – organisations have appreciated the speed of response and flexibility of project length which are not possible with other programmes (eg KTP)

• Ability to offer a flexible Knowledge Transfer product is valuable to HEI’s. Luton has appreciated this valuable addition to its portfolio thereby increasing its ability to offer a progressive range of products (eg STEP, KEEP, KTP, CASE etc)
• Speed of decision-making re programme approvals is attractive
• Truly collaborative joint delivery between different HEI’s has been an interesting and valuable by-product to date

• The success of this project to date has highlighted the need expressed by SME’s and other organisations for a flexible KTP-lite type of programme with HEI’s.
• We have worked hard with this regional HEIF project to keep central administrative costs lean, and to set up management structures which ensure quality but operate a “light touch” so that HEI’s efforts can concentrate on delivering value into their KEEP programmes with external companies and organisations.