A KTP project between Sanondaf UK and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) was spotlighted at last month’s high profile VentureFest event – the Can Do Innovation Summit at Glasgow’s Science Centre – where both Ian Campbell, Interim Executive Chair of Innovate UK and Ivan Mckee, MSP, highlighted the KTP programme.

Sanondaf UK specialises in the disinfection and decontamination markets using revolutionary touch-less disinfection technologies to help eradicate micro-organisms and infections that can cause health issues in everyday life for people and animals. Via this KTP, the company aims to embed engineering and microbiology expertise to facilitate the design, development, testing and launch of the next generation of microbial disinfection and decontamination technology.

Stuart White, Director, commented that “2020 looks set to be a landmark year at Sanondaf. Having now passed the first 6 months  of our KTP partnership with the University of West Scotland (UWS) we have already made significant progress in our project to design and build the world’s first combination sprayer and fogger for the decontamination market. The technical support and input from UWS has been invaluable in getting Sanondaf to this stage and we have seen massive benefit in being involved with the UWS – KTP family.”

All KTPs are a three way partnership between a company, a university and a talented graduate, or post graduate – the KTP Associate – who acts as both project manager and conduit for the knowledge transfer. Here Connor Spiers is the KTP Associate and he echoed the value that most Associates experience as a result of their unique role in a KTP: the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills, and to meet the challenges and responsibilities of working on innovation projects whilst enjoying the support of academic and company teams: “ This is a unique opportunity for an early career engineer and has given me exposure to a number of different opportunities that I may not have received elsewhere. Through this I have developed my engineering, project management and business skills while working with a combination of academia and business management.”

From UWS, Tony Leslie – the lead Academic – added, “…. Since the start of the project the company has been able to identify a number of additional business opportunities for the technology, which the team was unaware of at the outset. As a supervisory team we look forward to the next period of the project where we anticipate that significant tangible project aims will be realised. This KTP project is an excellent example of the KTP three-way partnership providing solutions to current challenges whilst responding to new opportunities throughout”

UWS’ KTP Manager, Dr Stuart McKay, said: “”This is a great example of how a KTP project allows businesses to draw on multi-disciplinary teams from across a University – in this case involving four academics with expertise spanning Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Microbiology from our Schools of Computing Engineering and Physical Sciences and from The School of Health and Life Sciences….It was great to see our KTP partner Sanondaf UK front and centre at the recentCan Do Innovation Summit”.

UWS’ KTP portfolio has grown rapidly in the last 24 months and the University has risen in the UK rankings from outside the top-50 to #7 in the UK, with a current portfolio of 26 KTPs worth in excess of £5.5m.

If you think a KTP might help your organisation innovate for growth, talk to one of our specialist Knowledge Transfer Advisers today.