The funding is from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, the European Regional Development Fund and the government’s Technology Strategy Board. It will allow the region’s universities to increase the number of knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs) from 70 to a targeted 210 over the next three years.
The University of Wolverhampton will administer the scheme.
Regional KTP manager Marc Fleetham says, ‘The skills and expertise within West Midlands universities are key to future development of the region and I would actively encourage companies to get in touch with their local university to find out how they could benefit from the scheme.’
KTPs last between 12 and 36 months and involve an academic institute giving a company access to its expertise or research through one of its graduates who is based at the company.