Raising the profile of KTP in the innovation space

KTPs have been called a hidden gem. Many companies could benefit from innovations catalysed by working with a university, but they do not realise there is a dedicated scheme to enable them to do so.

The North of Scotland KTP Centre is a joint venture between the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University. It also provides support to the University of the Highlands and Islands, the James Hutton Institute, Abertay University and the University of Dundee.

The Centre provides guidance and administrative support over the lifetime of projects, helping UK businesses collaborate with academic partners to innovate for business growth. Following a recent rebrand and with many of its award-winning projects about to reach completion, it commissioned Bulletin to create a series of high-quality case study videos, funded by Innovate UK’s KTP capacity-building programme.

The Centre wanted to showcase its range of projects across different sectors by communicating the impact of the KTP process. It recognised that promoting the work of the Centre would encourage more businesses to consider whether they could also benefit from a KTP.

To be successful, the videos needed to craft a narrative of the KTPs’ complex technical challenges and innovative outcomes from products, processes and culture changes.

Projects included data science in potato breeding, safety protocols in vertical farming, energy efficiency during beer brewing, AI in offshore oil and gas maintenance and innovations in medical imaging for gut surgery. There was a clear need for the videos to be accessible for non-technical audiences and to ensure the personality of each company and project would shine through.

We decided to interview contributors from all three components of a project – a representative from the business, the KTP Associate who carried out the work and an academic researcher – wherever possible. Working closely with local videographers and using a two-camera set-up, we conducted interviews remotely via Teams.

Once they had been filmed, we edited the interviews to tell a compelling story – weaving in perspectives from stakeholders, location shots and found footage to craft videos explaining the innovation and the business growth it helped deliver. Using additional content, we also provided the Centre with a supporting video of the benefits for would-be Associates and academics – helping raise the profile of KTP as an exciting career option for graduates.

The Centre hosted the videos on its YouTube channel, where they have gathered hundreds of views, and promoted them on its LinkedIn page. We also provided Instagram clips for each video to boost reach. In addition, the videos were formatted in readiness to be embedded into the Centre’s new website.