A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a UK-wide Innovate UK funded programme designed to help businesses grow through innovation. Each KTP connects a business with a specialist ‘Knowledge Base’, such as a university, research organisation, or Catapult to embed new expertise, skills, and technologies that enable strategic growth.
Spanning 12–36 months, the projects transfer critical know‑how to help businesses develop new products, services, or processes that would be challenging to achieve independently. Between 2010 and 2020, KTPs contributed over £2 billion to the UK economy, with hundreds of successful collaborations across sectors every year.
Together, this team turns ideas into impact, embedding lasting knowledge within the business and driving measurable commercial success.
We are uniquely positioned to support Life Science innovators in translational drug discovery and commercialisation. We help companies bridge the gap between early-stage discovery and real-world impact by embedding scientific, operational, and commercial expertise directly into their organisations.
By collaborating with us, partners gain access to:
Our goal is to empower innovators to validate their ideas, accelerate their R&D, and build the internal capability to progress their assets to patients faster. Projects can focus on developing new assays, technologies, or data-driven methods, or on improving business and management processes through a “Management KTP”.
These partnerships are open to UK-registered businesses of all sizes and sectors, but are particularly suited to SMEs and academic spinouts with clear innovation ambitions. Ideal partners:
Projects are part-funded by Innovate UK, who typically funds two-thirds of the total project cost for SMEs, making them an affordable route to accessing specialist R&D support, developing internal talent, and de-risking and reducing the cost of innovation.
Current KTP funding rounds
Typical projects last 18–24 months and are designed to deliver measurable commercial outcomes, from new product launches to enhanced processes, productivity, and profitability.
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