The breakfast meeting attended by 50 delegates, held in the Ethos building in SA1, focussed on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), which is one of the most successful and proven programmes that allows businesses and organisations to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance by working with the Universities.
Alison Parker, the event organiser and Knowledge Transfer Officer for the Dragon Innovation Partnership, explained: "A partnership is formed between business and an academic institution, to enable the business to access skills and expertise which would otherwise be unavailable to them. An associate (often a recent graduate) is recruited to the business specifically to work on that project. KTPs can vary in length from ten weeks to three years, depending on the needs of the business and the desired outcomes.
"The idea for the event came from a business who has recently been awarded funding for a KTP and felt that other business in Swansea would benefit from finding out about the programme. It was great to see so many local industry representatives together, with an interest in developing their businesses and adding to the Welsh economy."
The Dragon Innovation Partnership offers the expertise of all three partner universities, Swansea Metropolitan University, Swansea University and Trinity University College, so a business entering into a KTP with the Partnership has the added benefit of a wide range of academics to work with.
Each KTP project is bespoke and specific to the business or organisation's needs. Previous projects have covered product design, ICT, HR, legal issues, software, database management, lean management, solving engineering problems, branding and even problems in the medical and educational sectors.
Anne Carter, Director of Rap International, a company based in the area that operates at the forefront of knowledge based Control of Work practices for high hazard industries attended the event. She said: "I thought the breakfast meeting was very informative, especially the opportunity to hear from a business and an associate that has benefited from a KTP.
"Presentations were very positive and have encouraged our company to consider a short KTP to carry out a project that has recently been on hold.
"One of our core business activities is knowledge sharing and transfer within our client base. It will be interesting to see how an academic perspective might impact on those activities."
Andrea Jones, Business Development Executive for the West Wales Chamber of Commerce, said: "We were delighted to work with the Dragon Innovation Partnership on this event. It is an ideal scheme for many of our members - and we are keen to provide them with ways to develop and expand their businesses, especially in the current climate. It will also help promote the collaborative projects with universities, and show how academia and business can develop each other. This can only be an advantage to the economy."