Innovate UK – Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) is jointly delivered by Innovate UK and Innovate UK Business Connect.
The programme has been designed to create short-term collaborations between a Business Partner and a UK Knowledge Base* to rapidly inject innovation capacity. Inspired by the highly successful partnership model of KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership), Innovate UK – Accelerated Knowledge Transfer’s concept is to deliver a rapid and targeted intervention to accelerate the evaluation or development of an innovation project or concept, which has the potential for significant impact for the Business Partner.
In a 2022/23 pilot competition, a total of 129 projects were funded. The range of projects was diverse – from bilingual communications tools to on-farm carbon capture – representing all kinds of businesses and third-sector organisations from right across the UK. You can find out more about the AKT2i Pilot scheme and its impact, here.
*UK Higher Education (HE), Further Education (FE) institution, Research Organisation (RTO) or Catapult.
Business growth, resilience and sustainability relies on improving productivity and creating faster pathways to innovation. This often requires an input of new knowledge, skills and fresh thinking.
Innovate UK – Accelerated Knowledge Transfer is designed to build an intensive partnership with a specialist academic team to deliver a short, and targeted intervention (two to four months) to accelerate the evaluation or development of an innovation project or concept, which has the potential for significant impact for the Business Partner.
The value of business-academic collaboration is successfully evidenced by Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, which has been delivering positive impacts for businesses for nearly 50 years. As a deep dive approach, KTP is ideal for businesses with a clear, strategic challenge. But for many, particularly SMEs, the real challenge can be identifying the barriers – and solutions – to open innovation, greater productivity, and agency.
For these businesses, a shorter term, more rapid intervention can be the ideal solution. Innovate UK – Accelerated Knowledge Transfer, based on the successful partnership model of KTP, creates a more intensive collaboration that rapidly transfers new knowledge and creates a framework to help business teams:
The most recent competition round closed on 13 December 2023. A total of £4.5m was available to support this round.
Watch the competition briefing webinar here and download the webinar Q&As here.
Watch the grant administration webinar below. You can also access other guidance to help you administer your AKT grant.