Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP): 2026 – 2027 Round 3

Official Guidance

Provide an application title that follows the required format 'Knowledge Base and Business Partner KTP Year and Round'. Use the full business name exactly as it appears on its Companies House registration. Do not use abbreviations. For example, to submit an application into this competition, the following application title would be correct: University of Innovation and Shelen Limited KTP 26_27 R3. If the title is incorrect, your application may be withdrawn.

Official Guidance

Your project summary will give the assessors a useful introduction to your project. Provide a clear overview of the whole project, including: your vision for the project, key objectives, main areas of focus, details of how it is innovative.

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Provide a public description of the project that begins with 'To' and is suitable for publication. For example: To develop a novel process for picking soft fruit. Innovate UK will make use of this public description and may edit it, to comply with government requirements.

Official Guidance

Your application must be for a specific, strategic innovation project that tackles one or more challenges faced by the business partner. It can be any kind of project and must show: why the business needs this Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), what new knowledge is required by the business, what new capabilities will be embedded as a result of the KTP, how your project aligns with the Industrial Strategy, what characteristics the business possesses that suggest it has high growth potential. The six areas within the Industrial Strategy’s prioritised by Innovate UK sectors are: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Life Sciences. Projects that do not align with one of the six priority sectors are eligible, however, funding priority will be given to projects that align with the six areas prioritised within the Industrial strategy.

Official Guidance

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing? You must select one option: Yes, No. We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare. Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Official Guidance

Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project? We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date. You must select one option: Yes, No, In the process of being applied for, Not applicable.

Official Guidance

Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement? You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers. If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this.

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You must indicate whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance. You must select one option: Yes, No.

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You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including: a list of any dual use (both military and non-military) applications to your research, a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications, a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List. If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this. We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions.

Official Guidance

What type of KTP are you applying for? Select one option: classic KTP, management KTP.

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How many associates do you need to support this project? Select one option: one associate, two associates.

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Which of the IS-6 sectors described within the Industrial Strategy does your KTP most closely align with? Options: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Life Sciences.

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What is the business partner type? This refers to the applicant business not the parent group. Select one option: limited company, limited liability partnership, partnership, public limited company, sole trader, unlimited company, other.

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Is the business partner a virtual business? The key characteristic of virtual businesses is that their employees predominantly work from home and are connected by online services. Some virtual businesses retain premises whilst some do not. Select one option: Yes, No.

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Give the size of the business partner’s organisation. If the business partner is part of a group give the size of the overall group. For more information on business sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance. Select one option: micro, small, medium, large.

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What is the business partner’s Standard Industrial Code (SIC)?

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What is the business partner’s name and registration number? This is normally demonstrated on a public register, such as Companies House. The registered name and registration number provided must match the official public register. An incorrect name or number will result in the application being withdrawn from the competition. If your organisation is not a registered business, but is a legal entity, include additional information on your legal status as one of your supporting documents.

Official Guidance

What is the name and the full registered address of your organisation and your business partner working on the project. We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all participants of a project. Provide the full registered name and address of the knowledge base partner in this order (no bullet points): building name or number and street, town or city, county, postcode. Provide the full registered name and address of the business partner in this order (no bullet points): building name or number and street, town or city, county, postcode.

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Where will the associate mainly be working? Select one option: at a business location, working from home (virtual).

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Where will the business partner hold the face to face Project Management meetings and Local Management Committee meetings? This is usually where the project physically takes place, or a chosen location for virtual projects. Provide the full address of the location in this order (no bullet points): building name or number and street, town or city, county, postcode.

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Who is the senior business partner employee? Give their details in this order (no bullet points): title, first name, surname, email address.

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How does the experience of the senior employee at the business make them suitable for this role? The senior business employee will be expected to chair the Local Management Committee overseeing the delivery of the project. The individual named must: demonstrate the business partner or its group’s commitment to the partnership, provide evidence of the authority received to commit its resources to support the delivery of the project.

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Who is the business partner supervisor for each associate? Give their details in this order (no bullet points): Business partner supervisor for associate one (title, first name, surname, job title, email address), Business partner supervisor for associate two (title, first name, surname, job title, email address).

Official Guidance

What is the business partner supervisor’s background? Explain why their experience makes them suitable for this role. The individual named must: work in a team with the knowledge base supervisor and the associate, give day to day support to the project, offer guidance and mentoring support to the associate, provide links to information and expertise available within the business. It is expected that the supervisor will ensure that the business gives consideration to any request for resources or training of business personnel required for the project to succeed and for its outputs to become embedded within the business. If your project has more than one business partner supervisor, you must give the background details for each person.

Official Guidance

What is the knowledge base lead’s background? For the knowledge base lead: describe how their subject knowledge, academic interest and experience are relevant to the project, give evidence that they have the necessary skills to contribute to the successful delivery of the project.

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What is the knowledge base supervisor’s background? For each knowledge base supervisor: describe how their subject knowledge, academic interest and experience are relevant to the project, give evidence that they have the necessary skills to contribute to the successful delivery of the project. If your project has more than one knowledge base supervisor, you must give the background details for each person.

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What are the businesses current activities? Explain: current revenue generating activities, current business objectives. If the business partner is not generating revenues, provide details of their funding sources. If part of a business group, you must also indicate the broader business activities undertaken by the group.

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Demonstrate how the business plans to address the funding of this project? Explain: how the business can afford the project, how any of the investments needed to undertake the project and commercialisation will be funded. If the business accounts show any of the following issues, you must also provide additional details: declining turnover, low net profit, pre-tax, negative liquidity, high debt or equity, growth in long term loans. If the business’ financial position is complex and requires further explanation you should attach a business letter to the application.

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What are the future strategic aims of the business partner? How does this project address these needs? Explain: what are the business future strategic plans, how the project aims to address those, why this approach is innovative to the business, what new capabilities will be developed because of this project?

Official Guidance

What missing knowledge, technology or expertise does the business partner need from the knowledge base partner? How will this be transferred during your project and beyond? Explain how the new knowledge, technology or expertise will be: used within your project, embedded in the business for use beyond the lifetime of your project, commercially exploited by the business during and beyond the lifetime of your project.

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Why is an academic and business partnership the most appropriate approach for this activity? Explain why the KTP structure and funding is necessary to achieve the desired outcomes. Explain why these outcomes could not be delivered by 'off the shelf' solutions, direct recruitment or through consultancy.

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What genuine market opportunities relating to the business case will your project open up? Describe: your target market, the size of your target market, the percentage of the market you aim to capture, your market strategy to achieve this share, who your competitors are and what share of the market they have, your route to market, obstacles to market entry.

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What are the likely impacts of your project? The response to this question complements the figures in the Commercial Impacts table, uploaded as part of this question. Explain: the income generating activities arising from the KTP, the assumptions you used to generate the revenue and profit figures in the commercial impacts table, the formulas you use to calculate the revenue and net profit before tax figures. You must download the latest commercial impacts template, complete it and upload as a PDF with a file size of up to 10MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom. In undertaking a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, it is expected that the project outcomes will be primarily exploited for the UK’s benefit.

Official Guidance

What additional business actions and investments will be needed to commercialise the outputs from your project and deliver the benefits described? Explain: the additional actions required, what are the costs to bring the innovation to market, how you are going to fund the costs of your innovation, what is your budget for each stage of the innovation process and how will you support these costs. Where applicable, include within the finance table, details of any additional company contributions and financing required by the business during the life of the project.

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What additional benefits will be delivered as part of your project? Describe and quantify: if your project aligns with any of the United Nations sustainable development goals, the wider societal and environmental benefits, additional economic benefits including the number of new and safeguarded jobs, any other benefits that this project will deliver that may help your case for support.

Official Guidance

How will the associate or associates be supervised? Associate supervision is critical to the success of any partnership. Each associate must be supervised by both the: business partner supervisor on a daily basis, knowledge base supervisor for at least half a day each week. Describe: the nature of the daily supervision provided by the business supervisor, the nature of the half a day per week of supervision that will be provided by the academic supervisor, additional measures that will be implemented by project partners to support hybrid and virtual working. If the associate spends any time at the knowledge base, daily supervision will also be required from the academic supervisor. The business partner supervisor must also commit to supervise the associate at the knowledge base location.

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What makes this a challenging project for the associate? Explain what the associate will focus on, for example: technical challenges, resource challenges, people and change management challenges, project management challenges.

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In order to deliver your project successfully, what are you looking for from your associates? Briefly describe the essential and desirable: qualifications, skills, attributes, experience, rationale for salary requested. Explain the rationale for the budget request being made for associate employment costs. This must be based on evidence that it is appropriate for the industry or business in which the KTP will take place. Justifications relying solely on pay grades within the knowledge base or qualifications, will be withdrawn from the competition. You may submit an additional document containing evidence and upload it as part of your supporting documents. If your project is successful, the associate must be appointed through an open recruitment process. If potential associates are named within the application, it will be withdrawn from the competition.

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What challenges does the knowledge base partner have that will be addressed through this partnership? Explain: what challenge the project offers the knowledge base team, why the knowledge base team want to undertake this project.

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What impacts and outcomes does the knowledge base partner expect to arise as a result of this partnership? Explain the additional impacts and outcomes the KTP will bring to the knowledge base partner such as: capability development, impact on teaching, academic career development, future funding opportunities, publication opportunities, including the number of papers likely to be submitted. Where applicable, you must cross reference to the workplan.

Official Guidance

How will you manage your project effectively? Use the latest workplan template to detail your projects steps and stages, including benefits realisation phase and the exploitation phase. You must select 'Yes' to confirm the completed template has been uploaded. You must download the latest workplan template, complete it and upload it as a PDF with a file size of up to 10MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom. Individual tasks in the workplan should typically have a four week duration. The workplan should provide a summary of the technical aspects and the knowledge embedding activities. The workplan must include a summary of project risks and a summary Gantt chart indicating the inter-dependencies between tasks. If your project has two associates, then two workplans must be provided.

Official Guidance

You must confirm that each member of the Local Management Committee (LMC) is aware of their role and responsibilities. You must also confirm the knowledge base will provide the project secretariat. Before the application is submitted you must ensure each LMC member is made aware their participation in the LMC is mandatory. As the formal project meeting, the LMC must be chaired by the senior business employee. Each member of the LMC must be listed in the Application Team section of the application. Once recruited the associate must also attend the meeting. You must select one option: Yes, No. If your answer is no, your application will be rejected.

Official Guidance

Has the business partner applied for a KTP or Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) project? You must include projects submitted by the business partner in the same round as this application and applications into any KTP or AKT competitions in the last five years. Type 'Yes' or 'No' as part of your answer. If Yes, for all applications that have been submitted within the previous five years you must provide: the application reference number for each submitted project, details of how this application relates to the other submitted applications, details of how this project differentiates or builds upon previous projects, or complements other applications submitted in this round that include the business partner, a brief description of what benefits were gained by the business partner from previous submissions or a brief description of the changes made to projects that have previously been submitted but were not funded.

Official Guidance

Have any of the partners previously received non-KTP awards that relate to this application within the last five years? This includes awards from UKRI and other funding bodies. Type 'Yes' or 'No' as part of your answer. If Yes, you must provide: the award number, the date of the award, the name of your supporter, a brief description of the award, details of how the previous award is linked to this project.

Official Guidance

The knowledge base partner and business partner must declare a commitment to work together on the project by completing our joint commitment statement template. Download the latest joint commitment statement (JCS) template, complete it and upload it as a PDF with a file size of up to 10MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom. Select ‘Yes’ to confirm you have uploaded the completed template.

Official Guidance

Which funder do you want to financially support your project? You must type the name exactly as shown. You must choose at least one of the following: UKRI KTP (Innovate UK), Invest Northern Ireland, Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In addition to the financial supporters, you can select relevant UKRI Research councils and Innovate UK Domain teams. If you select a supporter, they will be asked to review the application as a non-scoring assessor.

Official Guidance

You can use this question to upload up to three other supporting documents as appendices. For example, you can use this question to upload documents providing supporting evidence of the business partner’s finance position. You must not upload photographs, excerpts from websites, electronic reports or documents that contain hyperlinks. Appendices must be in PDF format with a file size up to 10MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Official Guidance

You can use this question to upload up to three other supporting documents as appendices. For example, you can use this question to upload documents providing supporting evidence of the business partner’s finance position. You must not upload photographs, excerpts from websites, electronic reports or documents that contain hyperlinks. Appendices must be in PDF format with a file size up to 10MB. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Official Guidance

You must agree to the following declaration: that all proposal partners are aware of the information provided by Innovate UK, that the partnership agrees to abide by the rules and guidance, that the proposal meets the overarching criteria for KTP and the information provided is accurate and complete. Select ‘Yes’ if you agree.

Official Guidance

The partnership confirms that a Knowledge Transfer Adviser has reviewed the application and supports its submission into the competition. Select ‘Yes’ if you agree.