Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) provide resources and expertise to organisations that wish to innovate, expand or improve their performance. KTPs involve forming a partnership between a company (the company partner) and an academic institution (knowledge base partner) to enable the business to access skills and expertise to fulfil a strategic need. As the EREBUS capacity building cluster already 'holds' the money on behalf of these partner universities – the hardest part is already done for you and applications for setting up projects are welcomed between September 2008 and August 2010.

KTPs fund recently qualified graduates (Associates) to facilitate the transfer of skills and expertise between higher education institutions and industry. The Associate works full-time within the company on a project central to the company partner’s needs and is jointly supervised by company personnel and an academic. To ensure that a KTP is successful and a rewarding experience for all participants, the project should:

• be of strategic importance to the company
• require expertise from the Knowledge Based Partner
• be a challenge for the Associate

The EREBUS capacity building cluster KTPs need to satisfy all normal KTP requirements (for general information about these go to www.ktponline.org.uk) and fit the themes (energy, health technologies, or finance) and criteria (SME and West Midlands benefit) for the EREBUS capacity building cluster. Remember, the first hard step – getting the money - has already been done. If you have a company partner in mind and you and your idea meet the eligibility criteria then please contact the EREBUS project office on Erebus@aston.ac.uk.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is one of the UK's leading innovation programmes, helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. KTPs are largely funded by the Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org) along with 17 other government funding agencies.