Our services for business
Whether you're a start-up or an established brand, we have a range of services for you to choose from.
LJMU is one of the top universities in the UK for engaging with business and industry, with top-rated, award-winning Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and unique collaborations that combine our academic skills with the real world know-how of industry professionals.
We offer dedicated Key Account Management to assess your needs and co-ordinate your access to our skills and expertise.
How can we support you?
Find out more about the services we offer:
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Consultancy
Working with an academic consultant can open new perspectives for you, explore different ways to solve complex business problems or provide your organisation with an expert voice to help shape your company.
We offer you access to expertise, skills and resources that are internationally recognised. You'll benefit from advances in research, specialist opinions, and building relationships with academic and research teams focused on your industry sector.
Contract research and development
Contract research is generally defined as research commissioned by an external organisation, where any rights generated are usually owned by that organisation.
By commissioning contract research, you will be working with academic experts who apply academic rigour and skills to research, and working with you through a partnership approach can provide a tailored solution to your organisation's needs.
Access to world-class facilities and experts means that you are working with innovative, skilled research teams who are keen to impact on your business, deliver results for you, drive innovation and develop new ideas.
We pride ourselves on the standard of our research and have been recognised, nationally and internationally across many fields.
Find out more about research collaboration and partnership.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
What is a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP)?
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a scheme that links universities and graduates to businesses. By taking part in a KTP, you can use LJMU’s knowledge, technology and skills to strengthen your company. Organisations and businesses of any size, sector or region from the UK are welcome to take part.
As well as being beneficial to companies, a KTP also gives academics the opportunity to apply their research to real-world projects and provides a recent graduate with a strategic project to manage.
Benefits
Benefits for the business
- KTP projects are part-funded by Innovate UK
- A high-calibre graduate (the “associate”) employed by LJMU will provide day-to-day delivery of the project in your organisation
- Academic supervision of the project for half a day per week to ensure effective knowledge transfer
- Development of new products, services or strategic change to promote growth within the company
Benefits for the academic
- Develop business-related teaching materials
- Initiate new research projects and publish high-quality research papers
- Identify undergraduate or postgraduate projects
- Contribute to the Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF)
Benefits for the graduate associate
- Enhance your career prospects
- Manage a challenging project
- 80% of associates are offered employment by the host business on completion of their project
- KTP is a recognised route to fast-track career development
- You’ll receive training, coaching and mentoring support
KTPs and LJMU
Within the North West, LJMU is known for its KTP projects and we have been given numerous awards for our work in this area. You can find out more about our KTP work by exploring the following case studies:
Cost
Projects are part-funded by Innovate UK. For a SME, 67% of the costs are funded. If your company is larger, 50% of the costs are funded.
KTP@40
KTPs launched in 1975, addressing a shortage of engineering skills. 2015 will mark KTPs 40th anniversary. LJMU have been running KTPs for nearly as long. Since 1979 we’ve run over 125 projects.
“KTPs are one of the longest running schemes within the innovation ecosystem. That this scheme has continued for over 40 years is testament to its effectiveness and the ongoing demand for the support it provides.”
The Dowling Review of Business-University Research Collaborations, July 2015
Contact
To find out more about KTPs at LJMU, please contact Estelle Hargraves, the Knowledge Transfer Officer.
Telephone: 0151 231 8056
Email: e.s.hargraves@ljmu.ac.uk
Accredited qualifications, open courses, CPD and bespoke training
LJMU can help you stay ahead of the ever-changing world by learning, growing and developing your skills and those of your staff. Whether you need an accredited programme or bespoke solution, our development activities and CPD capabilities can help fulfil the potential of individuals, teams and your business as a whole.
We offer a full range of programmes and courses to suit the needs of specific professional industries:
- Degrees and postgraduate courses
- Professional qualifications
- Short courses
- Continuous/post professional development programmes
- Bespoke learning/development
We will do whatever it takes to work with your organisation to enhance the skills of your workforce, equipping your team to achieve objectives and ensure your people are best placed to make a positive contribution to your business.
Our Staff Development Team deliver:
- Accredited programmes
- Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Leadership and Management and Coaching and Mentoring
- Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Level 3 Qualification in Training and Education (EAT)
- Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Developing Professional Practice Award (DPP)
- Open courses in areas such as speed reading and writing, assertiveness, team development, presentation skills, project management, effective minutes and agendas, and PowerPoint
- Bespoke development on a variety of topics, in a range of different formats and structures to suit your needs
For more information or a free consultation get in touch with us:
Email: StaffDevelopment@ljmu.ac.uk
Telephone: 0151 231 5550
Facilitation services to support innovation, strategic and organisational change
By using creative thinking and facilitation methods combined with digital technologies you can explore issues and achieve objectives in new and innovative ways.
Expert facilitators will capture your discussions and ideas collaboratively yet anonymously through our interactive technology, The Distiller®. This brainstorming technology allows you to record and arrange active debate into a visual mind-map whilst giving everyone the freedom and anonymity to confidently and honestly respond.
Custom designing each session to meet your needs, we give you the freedom to concentrate on the ‘what’ while we look after the ‘how’ and working together deliver results.
We can provide facilitated sessions for organisations across a wide variety of needs such as:
- Focus group sessions
- Strategic planning
- Organisational change
- Team development
- Innovation and creative thinking
Funded projects for SMEs
Are you interested in how the research and innovation we undertake at LJMU could be of relevance to your plans to grow your business?
Are you unsure of where to start on this; don’t know who to approach in the University or whether our timelines and expertise will match with your aspirations and indeed budget?
Then our European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projects are a great starting point.
LJMU is proud to be working with local SMEs across a number of sectors: low carbon, advanced manufacturing, health, and digital and creative, to share market and technological insights, develop innovative processes and services and explore future funding opportunities.
You can find out more our current projects and partners below.
Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory (LCEI)
Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory creates innovative low carbon goods, processes and services, developed through collaborative partnerships between local companies in the Liverpool City Region and University researchers, students and academic staff.
LCR 4.0 START
LCR 4.0 START is designed to offer a proactive business outreach focused around digital strategy for business approach, aligning with and leveraging other support available within LCR that can support business growth of manufacturers and related supply chains and improve productivity, access to new markets and create higher-level jobs.
LCR Health MATTERS
(Market Access and Adoption of Health Technologies – Tailored Support and Evaluation in Real World Settings)
This project provides SMEs in the Liverpool City Region with support that will enable them to better understand, work with and sell to the NHS and health and social care markets.
Eco-I North West
Eco-I North West, a £14m business R&D programme is now on offer to businesses across the North West. Led by Lancaster University, LJMU are a partner in the Eco-I NW project which seeks to support low carbon business innovations across the region. This is the first project of its kind that will open up such a huge regional resource to our local businesses. In a time of crisis, we hope to facilitate business recovery, resilience, innovation and growth.
LCR Founders
The LCR Founders project is a partnership between LJMU and the University of Liverpool that supports entrepreneurship. It addresses a specific gap in the start-up eco-system in the Liverpool City Region with the promotion of an entrepreneurial founders-led culture that increases the creation of innovative and scalable start-ups from higher education. Overall the project aims to increase entrepreneurship activities amongst students and graduates.
LCR 4.0 Holistic
LCR4.0 HOLISTIC programme is a fully integrated digital innovation support project that will provide intensive support to a wide range of organisations beyond manufacturing. The project will help companies to harness the benefits and agility of increased digitalisation, to enable them to adapt their business to become part of stronger digitally enabled supply chain, better equipped to weather market fluctuations and sectoral changes.
Cheshire and Warrington 4.0
C&W 4.0 will expand the proven LCR4.0 model into Cheshire and Warrington, linking businesses in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries with the University’s expertise. This project is tailored specifically to meet the needs of manufacturing and engineering businesses in Cheshire and Warrington to implement new Industry 4.0 technologies.
You might also be interested in the LCR Growth Hub website which has details of all ERDF projects operating across Liverpool City Region, which provide support for SMEs.
LJMU’s European Social Fund (ESF) projects can also be a good opportunity for SMEs looking to get involved with LJMU graduates and undergraduates. The ESF Programme is managed by the Department for Work and Pension and LJMU are involved in the following projects:
LCR Graduate: Connecting SMEs to Graduate Talent
This project will provide practical support to owners and leaders of LCR SMEs and LJMU’s student and graduate community. This project will help SMEs to capitalise on the skills and knowledge graduate talent can bring to bear on their business; and expanding the volume and range of professional-level placements and internships for our student/graduates.
Leadership, Growth, Skills
The Leadership Growth Skills project aims to improve leadership and management by offering a demand-led training package for SMEs and their employees in the LCR. The project will upskill participants currently fulfilling or with the future potential to undertake higher level management roles within the city-region’s business base, with long term impact in terms of improving technical competence, and as result productivity.
Enterprise Hub Skills
Enterprise Hub Skills aims to simplify access to enterprise training and development by making Liverpool City Region a central hub for enterprise. Drawing together expert community organisations from across the region, Enterprise Hub Skills offers high-quality learning and development opportunities to build the enterprise skills and economic pathways for individuals. Through strategic engagement, the partnership will ensure local residents, no matter what their background and circumstances, can access support to build an individual learning plan that supports enterprise development.
If you’re not sure where your business is best placed to benefit get in touch via the details below and we’ll help scope this out with you.
Please note:
The projects above are receiving funding from the England European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund and the Department for Work and Pensions is the Managing Authority for the European Social Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations and the European Social Fund helps to support individuals to access training and education. For more information visit gov.uk.
Need more information?
For general enquiries or to discuss how your organisation can connect with the University’s research expertise please contact us using the details below.
Tel: 08085 876543 | Email: ris@ljmu.ac.uk