KTPs seen as key to reviving UK manufacturing
Despite the fact that Knowledge Transfer Partnerships have been around for 31 years, Margaret Hodge, the Minister of State for Industry and the Regions made the comment that the “Accountants of a business I was with last night still did not know about the scheme”.
The occasion was the presentation of the KTP “Awards07” in London, earlier this month. She then went on to point out that for those companies that did know about the scheme to provide graduate ‘Associates’ to companies to expedite links with academia, “Most firms recoup their investment in the first year, earn an additional quarter million pounds in each subsequent year and create eight new jobs”.
She had previously said that “Transferring knowledge into industry is utterly vital for the UK economy” building on statements by chief scientific advisor Sir David King that “We need to raise our game particularly in manufacturing at the high value end” and “A strong economy needs a strong manufacturing sector”. He pointed out that much of the success of the pharmaceutical sector in the UK arose because “Molecular biology came out of advances in the physical sciences” and lamented that, “I do wish we had a better connectivity between the City in the Square Mile and the manufacturing sector”.
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