Are you looking to:

  • Fast track your career?
  • Own your own project, delivering positive change?
  • Take on a role that bridges academia and business?
  • Apply your academic knowledge to a real life challenge?
  • Gain a further professional qualification?
  • Benefit from expert coaching and mentoring provided throughout your project by one of our highly experienced Advisers?
  • Manage your own substantial training and development budget (you can also use this to attend conferences, cover membership of professional bodies etc)?

Find out what it’s like to be a KTP Associate in this video.

Hear more about the role from Associates themselves: David Beattie, whose project is looking for a greener alternative to animal feed; and Verity Moorhouse whose project focused on more sustainable modular housing.

Watch the video below to find out more about the impact that KTP Associates can make (these Associates a winners of the Future Leaders Award).

Search and apply for KTP Associate roles here.

A KTP could be the perfect launchpad, helping enhance your career by managing a challenging project central to a business’s strategic development and long term growth.

You’ll ‘own’ your own project, linked to both a university and a business whose experienced teams will provide you with full support. Applying academic knowledge to a real world challenge, this is a chance to deliver impact and shape your career.

Graduates

A KTP is a three-way collaboration that benefits all parties:

  • A graduate or post graduate (known as an Associate)
  • A business or a not for profit organisation
  • A university/research institution (Knowledge Base).

KTPs are designed to deliver an innovation project and bring about lasting, transformative change. As a KTP Associate, you lead the project with full support and input from the organisation, the Knowledge Base teams and the dedicated Adviser for your KTP.

KTP is one of the biggest career platforms for talented graduates and post graduates in the UK – to date there have been over 12,000 KTPs in almost every industry sector and in companies of all sizes: in micro-sized business to global organisations such as Unilever and Rolls Royce. Right now, over 100 knowledge bases and over 800 graduates are involved in KTPs.

KTP projects last between 12 months and three years.

KTP projects last between 12 months and three years with approximately 70% of Associates offered employment by the host business at the end of the project.

Projects can be in any sector and for businesses of all sizes. You will be jointly recruited by the business and the Knowledge Base (usually a university) who will be your employer.  

Based for most of your time within the business  team. you will also have an academic supervisor to support you, plus the specialist input of a Knowledge Transfer Adviser from Innovate UK Business Connect who will be on hand throughout the project to provide mentoring and coaching.

KTPs offer extensive opportunities for high calibre graduates and post-grads, as you provide the link between an expert academic team and a dynamic company. This ‘bridge’ gives you unique and exceptional access to both worlds.

As a KTP Associate, you’ll act as a project lead and can expect to benefit from:

  • A fulfilling employment opportunity where you can apply your knowledge to turn a key strategic innovation idea in to reality
  • The chance to manage a challenging, real-world project
  • An opportunity to tailor-make your role, as each KTP Associate position is unique
  • The chance to implement strategic development within an innovative company
  • Dedicated coaching and mentoring from one of our expert Advisers
  • Management training – all Associates receive training from specialist, Ashorne Hill
  • Personal development – you will have your own personal training budget
  • The opportunity to gain a management qualification/training and the chance to work towards a higher degree.

KTPs span a wide range of academic disciplines and industry sectors. Your KTP could be anything from recipe development for a leading food business, developing marketing campaigns to reach the socially disadvantaged or applying AI to environmental sustainability or health; the projects are diverse; the opportunities are huge.

Typical challenges might focus on designing and introducing new products or better processes, re-organising production facilities, introducing improved quality systems and technology, or developing marketing strategies to break into new markets. The possibilities for transformation via a KTP are almost endless; likewise for KTP Associates. 

KTP Associates spend around 10% of their time in training and personal development. At the start of the KTP you get a training budget to manage – so you decide which courses would benefit you.

You can choose a variety of training modules during your KTP: project management, marketing and communication, finance, leadership and/or personal development, as well as job-specific technical training.

All this in addition to the invaluable experience gained through working on a KTP project with the support of expert teams.

Most current job vacancies for KTP Associates are listed on this site and link you directly to the relevant Knowledge Base job page where you can apply. You may additionally see KTP Associate roles advertised in your university department, careers office, local paper or on recruitment websites. 

what they say

Agnieszka Bachleda-Baca
Graduates

"My KTP was challenging but very rewarding at the same time. I have received an unique opportunity to work in the industry and academia at the same time, which is very advantageous. I became a better researcher and worked with different departments at the company, which gave me a great idea of how I want to shape my career path". Find out more about Agneiska's experience in this longer profile piece here.

arbnco / University of Strathclyde
Emily Mason (BSc Hons, Biopharmaceutical Science)
Graduates

"For me, the KTP role has really been a life changing opportunity.... I hadn’t heard of KTP until I applied for my role, however after the experience I have had I recommend it to anyone - especially graduates as it’s a great bridge between university and ‘real life’. It is certainly a decision I will never regret".

Northumbria Pharma / University of Sunderland
Melanie Herrmann
Graduates

"I am privileged to work both with gifted academics at the University of Cambridge, and bright minds at Vizzuality, a change agency for a sustainable and fair future. I am grateful for this unique opportunity to work in a job that I love and believe in."

Vizzuality/University of Cambridge
David Beattie
Graduates

“Through KTP, I’ve found a graduate role which offers both academic and industry experience in equal measure. My role is intensely immersive, which I put down to the considerable degree of autonomy the KTP framework affords. Our project is a win-win for its stakeholders, may lead to job creation and will reduce our Carbon footprint. That’s satisfying.” See a longer profile piece about David Beattie's KTP here.

Davidsons Feeds/James Hutton Institute
Neha Sharma
Graduates

"KTP is like a beautiful interwoven fabric of academia and industry."

KTP Associate, Cosmotec Ltd and University of Salford
Georgiana Nica-Avram
Graduates

"Working with OLIO and the University of Nottingham has helped me develop personally and professionally. It has helped me contribute the skills and knowledge I have gained so far, as well as develop new skills in the fast-paced domain of data science. OLIO is dedicated to addressing one of today’s greatest challenges- food waste, and I am grateful to be part of this solution."

University of Nottingham / OLIO

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