University of Essex - KTP Brochure

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PARTNERSHIPS

THE TRANSFER

KNOWLEDGE

FACTS

PARTNERSHIPS

Accelerate innovation in your business with our world-class expertise.

If you’re looking to develop a new product or improve a process, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) at the University of Essex can give your business a competitive advantage.

KTPs are an established and successful initiative, funded by Innovate UK and Research Councils, that bring together businesses with research expertise. They’re a three-way partnership between your business, a leading academic and a highcalibre postgraduate associate and can last between 12 months to three years.

Sector-wide expertise

Our current Knowledge Transfer Partnership portfolio focuses on areas including; data science, AI, embedded systems, robotics, plant science, and management science.

The benefits of partnership

KTPs help you to gain competitive advantage and ultimately improve profitability through:

• Access to highly qualified and motivated graduates

• Links to university expertise

• Innovative solutions to help your business grow

• Ideas to help develop your company for today’s markets

• Investment in research and development

• KTPs are eligible for R&D tax credits

Our funding approval success rate is 95% for KTP projects.

UNDERSTANDING

THE KTP PROCESS

KTPs can drive development, innovation or the adoption of new technologies within your business.

Follow our six simple steps to help you understand if KTPs are right for your company.

Introduction and scoping

Meet with our KTP team to discuss our research and the area of Essex expertise suitable for your project. Further meetings with our academic experts will help to shape a research agenda focused on delivering your desired outcomes.

Funding

Work with us to develop a funding application. KTPs are funded by Innovate UK and research councils.*

Contact Us

Tell us about the challenge facing your business.

KTPs can drive development, innovation or the adoption of new technologies within your business.

Recruit

Together we’ll recruit a high-calibre postgraduate who will be your research associate. They will manage the KTP project and will be based at your business.

Support

You will receive support throughout your KTP. Your business will then have the option to explore further university opportunities after your project to help you with commercialisation and embedding.

Start

Start your one to three year project, supported by the KTP team. You’ll have regular catch-ups between your academic, Innovate UK and the senior contact in your business, ensuring the project remains on track.

*Funding is equal to 67% of the project costs for an SME and 50% of the project costs for larger companies.

APPLIED COMMERCIAL RESEARCH

Artificial Intelligence

We can help you use machine learning and AI to solve complex, often daunting business challenges in sectors ranging from finance to healthcare.

Our expertise in computational finance and algorithmic trading can offer novel solutions to the service industry where added insights deliver true value to the bottom line.

Our knowledge of human language science and natural language processing makes sense of high volumes of unstructured text data, to find business meaning and value in areas such as media monitoring and chatbot development.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Our Immersive Education Lab (iEL) carries out research into virtual and mixed-reality systems to support business innovation in work force deployment and aerial surveying using drones. Immersive research development is moving beyond the use of virtual worlds to become more embedded in our physical world. This has many applications in industry including improving the customer journey and experience.

Robotics

Our Robotics Research Group are pushing the boundaries of automation through collaborations in areas such as manufacturing and measurement.

These are just some of our research areas related to industry and current KTP projects. We are also conducting world leading research in psychology, maths, gaming and sports rehabilitation.

We are leading the way in developing robotic Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to solve grand societal challenges in areas such as renewables and security.

Agritech

Our Plant Productivity Group helps agriculture embrace the new world of agritech with our knowledge, research and insights. At an interdisciplinary level, our computer scientists work closely with our Plant Physiology Research Group to develop novel solutions in areas such as productivity and disease.

Intelligent Systems

Our researchers are developing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions across a broad range of business challenges, from hi-tech security solutions to innovation in healthcare. Our pioneering work in communications including our development of future networks and optoelectronics has resulted in award winning partnerships across the rail sector to develop a new 5G network.

Data Science

Data is essential for business, public services, and policy making. Our pioneering Institute for Analytics and Data Science experts work with businesses, governments, local authorities, NGOs and third sector organisations to improve productivity and performance.

We can help you drive innovation, productivity and competitiveness and provide new insights to help your company deliver even better experiences.

Management Science

From growth strategy and change management to digitisation and process optimisation, management science is one of the fastest-growing themes in knowledge transfer. Our Essex Business School is currently leading the delivery of seven KTPs, specialising in areas including brand management, product rollout, employee engagement and go-to-market strategies for novel software applications.

Networks and Communications

Our researchers in the Communications and Networks Research Group have delivered academic expertise on topics from mesh network communications to microwave antenna design. Whether we’re guiding the design of next-generation radio communication devices or advising on the equipping of unmanned marine vessels, Essex knowledge, resources and facilities are ready to help deliver industry-changing innovation.

CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

ABOVE

CLOUDFM

Business context

Above is a market leader for solar photovoltaic (PV) drone inspection and software solutions, driven by high-quality drone data.

Founded in 2016, Above has worked on over 2,500 solar assets and supports customers on an international scale, working with many of the world’s leading solar energy companies.

Having rapidly grown the business using human operatives to inspect vast amounts of solar health data, Above were limited from further growth as a result of labour constraints and were hungry to automate fault detection.

As a company on the cusp of a Series A fundraise, this adoption of artificial intelligence (Al) was deemed critical to the company’s next stage of development. It was forecast that automating the detection of faults from video data would unlock growth potential of near to £3.2m post-project.

Research solution

Above partnered with the Institute of Analytics and Data Science at Essex through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) which brought in leading Al expertise from an Academic team led by Professor Hani Hagras and Dr Javier Andreu.

The project team pioneered the rapid processing, formatting and importing of high-resolution inspection videos from aerial video streams using machine learning classification techniques. This enabled the detection and classification of the micro-crack anomalies in the PV cells - which were sent to a dashboard to be utilised by solar farm asset managers.

The research solution also enabled humanoperator feedback to reinforce the machine learning capabilities via reinforced learning.

Business value

Above became a long-term strategic partner with Essex, going on to secure further successful funding from Innovate UK for a second KTP exploring the next product evolution using digital twin technology, and a Smart Grant developing next-generation robotic techniques to fully automate the flight of the drone.

Three talented researchers, hired to deliver the projects under the supervision of the company and academic team at Essex, became permanent members of staff at Above after the projects ended.

The company has since expanded and moved into Parkside on the University’s Knowledge Gateway research and technology Park, to be closer to academic and computer science graduate talent.

As a direct result of the KTP, Above realised its growth potential and successfully secured a Series A fundraise to further build out its Al capability and exploit its potential for growth. Most recently, The Clean Growth Fund has led a £2.4m investment in Above, establishing them as a global leader in solar plant data and analytics. It’s the first investment in solar tech the UK venture capital fund has made in the UK. The Clean Growth Fund was launched in 2020 with a focus on investing in the UK’s most promising early stage “clean growth” technology companies.

Business context

The Cloudfm Group provides cutting-edge facilities management (FM) services powered by their unique technology platform.

Environmental sustainability is at the heart of Cloudfm’s innovation programme, and the company sought to develop a solution that would enable their clients to run smarter, more energy efficient buildings.

The Internet of Things (IoT), a key element of Industry 4.0, showed tremendous potential for delivering these objectives and accelerating commercial gains. Cloudfm’s clients could reduce waste, improve financial sustainability, and minimise carbon footprint via intelligent connected devices. The company’s new initiative would also allow for further diversification of their client base, enabling new and innovative offerings in areas such as data analytics.

Research solution

Cloudfm partnered with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at Essex to research and build advanced monitoring, control, and prediction solutions.

The aims of the partnership were twofold: 1. move Cloudfm into proactive asset care and insight through the implementation of IoT; 2. develop a data analytics and visualisation engine for fault detection, risk assessment, and multi-layered insight in FM.

The KTP was led by four academics, most notably Dr Faiyaz Doctor - an expert in state-of-the-art AI solutions, and Dr Hossein Anisi – an expert in IoT-based sensing and communication monitoring architectures. Two full-time KTP Associates worked with Cloudfm’s technical teams to develop the novel algorithms and pioneering intellectual property underpinning the project.

Business value

Following successful completion of the KTP in July 2021, Cloudfm are the first FM company to provide an IoT solution that offers end-to-end lifetime care of assets, thereby reducing costs.

Over the course of the KTP, the collaboration between Cloudfm and Essex extended into other areas such as the healthcare sector, where the partners joined forces to develop innovative new disinfection services during the pandemic.

The disastrous effects of COVID-19 on the food and beverage industry have reinforced Cloudfm’s ambition to grow its IoT and AI capability over the next decade, and the KTP research has laid important foundations for the company’s IoT team to build on.

CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTIC

SOLUTIONS

Business context

Founded in 2018, Industrial Robotics Solutions (IRS) specialises in developing robotic solutions for manufacturing sectors facing labour supply shortages.

The company identified the labour challenges facing the $500bn food assembly industry where manual workers still assemble burgers, pizzas, salads and sandwiches by hand globally and where manufacturers are no longer able to afford, retain or recruit the workers.

The company decided that it would develop an innovative low-cost robotic solution capable of identifying, picking and placing individual food ingredients to assemble meals fully autonomously at below the costs of current manual operators.

This state-of-the-art solution would help the company become the global market leader in the provision, sales and integration of robotic vision picking and placing solutions for individual unprocessed food ingredients within the global prepared food industry.

As a result of a KTP with the University of Essex, the company developed a break through solution to this challenge which has been patented and as a result of which the company has secured a first customer in the UK Food manufacturers of the Year Raynor Foods Ltd.

Research solution

IRS partnered with Essex through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to develop a transformative robotic gripper and vision system that enables the robotic assembly of food ingredients. As an SME, the company have benefited from 67% of project costs being covered by Innovate UK.

Prof. Klaus Macdonald-Maier and Dr Vishwanathan Mohan have been using their expertise to integrate cutting edge technology into an inherently unsophisticated production operation, and both academics are world leaders in the design and implementation of robotic vision guided grasping solutions for the soft fruit, lettuce and asparagus industries.

The project team recruited a talented robotics engineer to lead on the development of a new method of approaching the challenge without using suction cups or robotic fingers, the two standard grippers that are used in all robotic applications but are ineffective in picking up individual food ingredients. Within the first 6 months of the project, a new solution was developed, tested and patented and Raynor Foods who are one of the UK’s leading sandwich manufacturer was on-boarded to install the system in their Essex production line in Q1 2023

Business value

The IRS robotic food gripper and vision system opens the door to food manufacturers globally being able to assemble meals robotically thereby reducing their costs, increasing their profitability and allowing food preparation industry to move from being a low-tech manual industry to a hightech industry with higher wages, better working conditions and better recruitment prospects.

CHECK4CANCER

Business context

Check4Cancer is an award-winning cancer screening and diagnosis healthcare provider in the UK. The company’s team of cancer specialists has extensive clinical expertise, enabling Check4Cancer to provide services that are trusted by leading UK insurance providers and corporate sector clients.

Founded in 2014 by Professor Gordon Wishart, the Cambridge based company enables people to take ownership of their health by providing cancer tests and services that are innovative, validated, and effective.

Check4Cancer’s innovative skin cancer screening and diagnostic services are the fastest growing part of the business and both pathways are currently delivered by nurses with telemedicine reporting by skin cancer consultant specialists. Therefore, in order to scale up, the healthcare provider needed to explore the introduction of a digital skin cancer pathway, with an AI skin lesion assessment tool to partly automate reporting, and an App to facilitate skin image capture in remote locations.

Through partnering with the University of Essex, the aim of the project is to speed up diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer for NHS and private patients.

Research solution

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by Innovate UK is a collaboration with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at Essex, that aims to identify major cost reductions in the assessment of skin cancer across both private and public sector health care. The 24-month project is also supported by a Smart Grant from Innovate UK, that will allow development of the App and commercialisation of the skin cancer model.

The KTP project will develop an AI powered model based on Check4Cancer’s vast bank of more than 70,000 skin lesion images which are all labelled with a wealth of clinical information. Skin lesions

are any skin area with different characteristics from the surrounding skin, including colour, shape, or texture, so can be an indicator of various conditions including skin cancer.

By working with Essex AI academics in image recognition, machine learning and algorithm development, Check4Cancer plans to harness both academic excellence and industry expertise to build on its vast bank of skin lesion images and associated clinical data to create an AI model that replicates the clinical excellence of its current clinical skin cancer model. Dr Haider Raza will lead the project with the support of Dr Alba Garcia Seco De Herrera and Professor John Gan.

Business value

The award of over £180,000 funds a data scientist to work full-time on the project for two years. The project will build on the work of the Check4Cancer’s nurse-led skin diagnosis pathway for insured and self-pay patients that tackles long waiting times and helps to avoid unnecessary biopsies and surgical procedures. More than 80% of patients are offered an appointment within five days and only 14% of patients need to be referred on for biopsy or treatment.

This KTP award is in addition to the Innovate UK Smart Grant also awarded to Check4Cancer this year. The UK Smart Grant is supporting the development of a ‘Skin App’ to take high-quality images to assist the assessment of skin lesions. This will be integrated with the company’s Patient Management System and, the funding will also support commercialisation of the digital skin platform.

STUDY

PREQIN

Business context

Preqin is a market leading provider of financial data and intelligence on the alternative assets market. They’re renowned for the quality of their data and wanted to further unlock its potential by automating some of their industry-leading analytical processes usually handled by their team of researchers. At the same time, Preqin were keen to get support in identifying connections and ‘underlying knowledge’ from their data and advancing their information retrieval methodologies.

The overarching goal was to enable faster and higher-volume reporting to investors while maintaining quality and allowing their researchers to add value in other areas.

Research solution

Preqin embarked on two Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) across two different domains:

1. advanced machine learning to develop faster, more automated extraction of key criteria from investment research; and

2. cutting-edge knowledge graph and network science research to enable the firm to generate advanced insights from huge volumes of dissimilar data.

Through Innovate UK funding, the tech team at Preqin were able to engage Professor Phillip Leifeld and Dr Spyros Samothrakis to lead the projects, in collaboration with two appointed

data scientists specialising in text analytics and network science applications.

By combining advanced algorithm development with sophisticated machine learning methodologies and network science; the academic teams were able to make sense of both structured and unstructured data to deliver new insights and automate the provision of recommendations at scale.

Business value

Preqin has exceeded all commercial impact projections and is on track to secure an excess of £1.5m return on their investment. The firm now boasts an AI enabled suite of insight tools for their investors and commended the project for operating as a ‘partnership rather than a consultancy’.

The first KTP, now complete, saw Preqin awarded Best KTP Partnership 2020 at the Essex KTP Celebration, with the appointed data scientist, James Madge, being recognised as a Future Leader by Innovate UK. He also secured a lead researcher role with Preqin to continue to further the KTP outcomes.

TESTIMONIALS

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Essex has been critical in in the development of a breakthrough product for which there is already global demand but which has eluded

The University of Essex has been a critical partner to Profusion, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them. Having professors accessible to us and being able to learn from the latest academic insights and take those into our services and products for clients has been transformational.”

Profusion

The KTP with Essex has had a huge impact on our business. We knew we needed to future-proof our unique offering and being able to tap into the University knowledge base and gain financial support through the funding from Innovate UK has meant we’ve been able to do just that. I would recommend any business looking to innovate to get in touch with the team at Essex.”

food manufacturers, robotic developers and integrators for over 30 years.”

Peter Schwabach, CEO, Industrial Robotics Solutions (IRS)

Our partnership with the University of Essex and Innovate UK will give us the combined expertise to take our innovative UAV technology to the next level, keeping our business at the forefront of this developing market.”

Will Hitchcock, CEO, Above

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Natalie Cramp, CEO,

Alex White, Managing Director, Blackman and White