The document outlines various initiatives and funding opportunities that facilitate university-industry collaborations in the UK, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and the Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA). KTPs aim to enhance business competitiveness through academic partnerships, while the KTA focuses on addressing industrial challenges and fostering innovation. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of integrating research with industry needs across sectors such as healthcare, environmental sustainability, and communications technology.

1. University Support for Industry Collaboration
Peter Lancaster

2. Recap
• KTN
– Knowledge Transfer Network
• KTP
– Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
• KTA
– Knowledge Transfer Account

3. KTN
• Fostering global economic
performance and specifically
economic competition in the
UK.
• Increasing the effectiveness of
public services and policy.
• Enhancing quality of life,
health and creative output.

4. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
What is a KTP?
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships aim to help businesses
improve their competitiveness and productivity through
the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that
reside within the UK Knowledge Base
• KTP is funded by the Technology Strategy Board along
with the other government funding organisations
Associate
KTP
Academic Company

5. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
KTP routes:
1. Classic KTP
Longer term: 1-3 years, more strategic issues
2. Shorter KTP
Shorter term: 10-40 weeks, more tactical issues
The suitability of the route depends on the needs of the
organisation and the desired outcomes
Associate
KTP
Academic Company

6. Industrial CASE Awards
• Funding for PhD studentships where businesses take the
lead in arranging projects with an academic partner of their
choice.
• Company decides the research project
• £7K/year from the company
• £22K/year from EPSRC/RDA etc.

7. IDC - Sustainability for Engineering
and Energy Systems
• Engineering Doctorate Programme
• Alternative to traditional PhDs
• A four-year programme combines PhD-level research
projects with taught courses
• Students spend about 75% of their time working with a
company
• Company contribution - £12 K/year

8. Technology Strategy Board
Collaborative funding
• Harnessing Large and Diverse Sources of Data – closes 21/10/10
• Metadata: increasing the value of digital content – fast-track and
mainstream competitions, briefing event on Thurs
• Technology-Inspired Collaborative Research and
Development – opens 12/10/10
– Advanced Materials
– Biosciences
– Electronics, Photonics and Electrical Systems
– High Value Manufacturing
– Information and Communications Technology
– Nanotechnology

9. EPSRC : The concept of Impact
• Fostering global
economic performance
and specifically
economic competition in
the UK.
• Increasing the
effectiveness of public
services and policy.
• Enhancing quality of life,
health and creative
output.

10. EPSRC Follow on Fund
• Turn research outputs into a commercial proposition.
• Up to 12 months support for technical and business
development activities
• Demonstrate commercial feasibility and scientific/technical
merit
• Last call closed 6 August 2010
• Next call: Closing date February 2011

11. Knowledge Transfer Account
(KTA)
Exploiting Excellence through Innovation

12. What does KTA do?
1. Extending the Technology Readiness Level
2. Making proven concepts ready for investments
3. Solving specific industrial challenges

13. How?
• Increasing Engagement
• Accelerating Exploitation
• Demonstrating Impact
• Communications & Signal Processing
• Nanotechnology & Photonics
• Next Generation Materials & Characterisation

14. Increasing Engagement
• Identify markets in which University research can be applied
• Identify and engage with suitable companies and organisations
• Facilitate knowledge exchange
• Interface between business needs and the knowledge base
• Build processes to enable closer engagement and knowledge
exchange

15. Accelerating Exploitation
• We have funds
– But
• Principle of co-funding
– 50% contribution from large organisations
– 25% contribution from SMEs
• What for?
– Proof-of-Concepts/prototyping
– Placements
– Training/CPD development
– Targeted, specific market research
– Demonstrators – larger, multi-partner projects
– Horizon scanning workshops.
• Filling in the TRL gap—levels 3-5

16. Technology Readiness Levels
TRL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Research Councils TSB Business, VC etc.
Main
Funder KTA
Basic idea Application Proof of Lab trials Live trials Prototype Prototype System System
developed concept demonstrated in live tested operational
test in live
environment

17. Demonstrating Impact
• Show what we can do
• Create a sustainable and self-perpetuating environment
For business and the University

18. Funded Projects
• Integration of biologically inspired algorithms for real-time image analysis into
commercial image-processing systems to enable field trials. With a local signal
processing SME
• Demonstrator hardware for improved induction-loop hearing aid system, solving the
“cocktail-party problem” in meeting rooms and conferences. With RNID
• Development of a technology demonstrator for computer game animation engine.
Space technology spin-off. Joint funding with other agencies.
• Application of novel analysis techniques to greenhouse gas modelling in the
agricultural sector.
• Trials at a major hospital of a new approach to screening retinal images for signs of
diabetes
• Part-funding a placement of a researcher at a film production house to transfer
knowledge on video capture to the company and receive knowledge of commercial
methods and priorities.
• Development of investment potential profiling system, based on web-mining
technology. With UKTI.

19. Pending Projects
• Adaptation of concept proved in an open-source software package, for use with
Microsoft Office
• Development and commercial testing of algorithms for improving tracking of facial
features
• Development of a Future Networks Demonstrator to enable trialling of next-
generation content delivery and internet services. Joint funding with other agencies.
• Testing of an interactive, web-based learning system with local organisations
• Market research to focus the potential adaptation of space robotics technologies to
other market areas

20. Conclusion
• KTA is industry friendly
• It can fund significant proportion of the development
cost
• Reduces the risk to the company
• It adopts both technology push and market pull
approaches

21. Communications & Signal Processing
Platform
Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA)

22. Research Strengths of the Platform
Area
• Centre for Communication Systems Research – CCSR
• The Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing – CVSSP
• Computing
• Surrey Space Centre
• Centre for Environmental Strategy
• Digital World Research Centre
Others

23. Key Markets for our research
Distribution of EPSRC projects by Business Sector
6%
8% 2% 4%
4%
4%
31%
0%
41%
Aerospace, defence and marine Creative industries
Electronics, Communications and IT Energy
Food & Drink Infrastructure and Environment
Manufacturing Medicines and Healthcare
Transport Systems and Vehicles

24. Communications & Signal Processing
Research-Application mapping:
• Creative Industries:
– Video processing with applications in television, film production,
animation and games production
– Optimisation of the transmission of digital content using various
media and device types
– Audio quality and perception
• High Value Services:
– Complex systems, particularly relating to the interactions between
computer systems, users and their environment
– Secure communications systems
– Image and video security and analysis
• Healthcare:
– Signal and image processing for automated screening applications,
and for assisted living applications
– Communication systems as an enabler for applications such as tele-
health

25. Communications & Signal Processing
Research-Application mapping:
• Environmental Sustainability:
– Use of communications and systems analysis to enable energy &
resource efficient systems
– Novel methods for carbon footprint measurement.
– Earth observation analysis
• Digital:
– Semantic web research
– Pervasive sensor networks and the “Internet of Things”
– Cognitive communications systems
– Next generation networks and communications
– Human factors in IT systems (trust, security, usability etc.)
– Sociological effects of digital media, content and dissemination
systems

26. Centre for Communications Systems
Research – CCSR
Prof. Rahim Tafazolli, Director
Mobile/wireless, fixed networks and satellite systems
• Advanced air-interfaces
• Flexible and self organising networks – ad-hoc, Femtocells
• Cognitive Radio and Dynamic Spectrum Allocation
• Energy and environmental systems design
• Future Generation Internet Studies
• Mobile antennas
• Propagation measurements and modelling – indoor/outdoor and
satellite
• End-to-end security systems
• Sensor networks from protocols to services
• Web based service provision and service platforms
• Advanced satellite communications/networking and payload
technologies

27. Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal
Processing – CVSSP Prof. J Kittler, Director
Focus Multidimensional signal (speech, audio, images, volumetric data,
video) processing, interpretation and understanding)
Applications Biometrics, Visual Media – broadcast, film, gaming, Video
Archive Retrieval and Restoration, Security and Surveillance, Audio
Perception, Robotics & Cognitive Vision, Medical Imaging
Biometrics
Surveillance 3D Visual Media
Medical
Imaging
Audio
perception

28. Computing
Prof. Paul Krause, Prof. of Software Engineering
Formal Methods and Security
• high-integrity systems development
• formal analysis of security protocols
• multimedia security
Digital Ecosystems
• mass-market interactive computing
• P2P networks for open e-business communities
• automated reasoning about software systems
• complex reactive systems
Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering
• image processing and mining
• information retrieval and knowledge extraction
• modelling and analysis of genetic and metabolic networks for
drug design and disease analysis
• aerodynamic structure design
• multi-criterion optimization and decision-making

29. Surrey Space Centre – SSC
Dr Craig Underwood, Director
Signal Processing & Communications:
– GNSS Reflectometry; Galileo Signal Processing
– Control algorithms & techniques
– Smart Antennas; High Efficiency RF
– Data Encryption & Compression
– Wireless Sensor Networks
– Machine Vision for Navigation
– Laser & RF Inter-Satellite Links
– Wireless On-Board Data Bus

30. Centre for Environmental Strategy
CES - Professor Matthew Leach, Director
Approaches/themes:-
• sustainable systems: tools for analysis
eg LCA, carbon footprinting, agent-based models, multi-criteria
methods
• social research on sustainability
values, attitudes, behaviours. Linked to departments of Psychology,
Sociology, Economics
• policy/governance and corporate strategy for sustainability
risk, roles of innovation, CSR, communication, regulation
Applied (largely) to:-
• systems analysis for lower carbon processes & products
• low carbon energy systems
• water resources and policy
• lifestyles and environment

31. Digital World Research Centre
Prof. David Frohlich, Director
• multi-disciplinary team:
including sociology, anthropology, psychology, interaction design/HCI,
media design, computer science and communications
• focusing on:
user-centred innovation in digital technology for the consumer market
citizen journalism as
a route to digital
inclusion
audio-visual story
sharing in an Indian
IT use in older village community
people

32. Contact
Peter Lancaster
peter.lancaster@npl.co.uk
07738 895464
Communications & Signal Processing
University of Surrey Knowledge Transfer Account
www.surrey.ac.uk/kta
University of Surrey
Research & Enterprise Support
www.surrey.ac.uk/res
Knowledge Transfer Networks
http://ktn.innovateuk.org/