Opportunities for Your Business to Work with Local Universities

16th May 2016

Here at Shorts' Innovation Taxes Group (ITG) our clients often tell us how two of the big challenges they face relate to either finding the next generation of specialist staff, or accessing the technical resources that they need to help their innovative business to grow.

Concerns such as finding suitably skilled staff who can be brought through, or recruitment fees being too high. Or similarly, how investing in a major R&D project or specialist machinery that may open a completely new strategic direction for them can be beyond their current resources. At the Shorts' ITG we are keen to help our innovative clients, from working with them to obtain R&D or Patent Box tax reliefs, or access grant funding, IP protection and other business support. We have found that one rich source of support in our area are our local academic institutions. To that end, and after spending time sitting down with representatives from Sheffield Hallam, Sheffield and Derby universities to find out how they can help, we've put together a handy summary of the options on offer from them: Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) A business-graduate-university partnership to work on a specific strategic and innovative/industry leading development project aimed at filling a knowledge gap within a business. On average these can achieve an additional £250k-plus annual profit for every KTP KTP success stories from our region: Rollem development of new laser cutting machines. LabLogic development of next generation medical machinery. Click here to read more. Student Year in Industry and Student Internships/Placements No recruitment fees Student Projects (eg. one day) One off technical project to fill a company's knowledge gap Recruit a Graduate One-off Projects/Research/Consultancy Access to facilities such as 3-D printers, CNC machinery, metallurgical suites etc. Bespoke Innovation Workshops Workshops to help explore a businesses innovation needs/potential To find out more and get in touch with your local academic institutions, or get in touch with us at the Shorts' ITG or contact Scott Burkinshaw at scott.burkinshaw@shorts.uk.com or on 0114 2671617 to find out more. Or let us put you in touch with somebody who can help your innovative business grow. For any further information, please click here