Revolutionary partnership A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a career opportunity available to UK graduates to help them become the business leaders of tomorrow. A KTP enables a UK business to bring in new skills and the latest academic thinking to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project and create transformational change in industry. A two-year KTP between the University of Huddersfield and one of the worldâs leading reinsurance companies could revolutionise the way the UK insurance industry manages early-stage sickness absence and has been labelled by UK Government as being âa market innovationâ. Dr Serena Bartys, from the Universityâs Centre for Applied Research in Health, is the Lead Academic Supervisor of the 24-month project, supervising a KTP Associate working with reinsurance company Swiss Re. The project could ultimately save the UK economy millions of pounds by reducing work loss due to ill-health. The Swiss Re Group is one of the worldâs leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. The aim of the
Dr Serena Bartys, Lead Academic Supervisor
22 | DISCOVER 2022
Swiss Re Group is to enable society to thrive and progress, creating new opportunities and solutions for its clients. Dr Serena Bartys says: âLeading this KTP has been hugely exciting because our research has the potential to directly influence industry, both here in the UK and globally. It has been a valuable exercise in empathy and co-creation to ensure our research connects with the people who need it â the associate, the company and their clientsâ The KTP Associate, Dr Abasiama Etuknwa, will use world-leading research conducted at the University, as well as Swiss Reâs industry knowledge on income protection insurance, to develop and implement an insurance-led, evidence-based return-to-work plan, that will also include input from employers.
