UNIVERSITY of the West of Scotland (UWS) landed three prestigious industry awards at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023.
The awards mark the biggest celebration of knowledge exchange in Scotland, providing an opportunity to showcase some of the game-changing innovation that stems from these important partnerships.
UWS received six nominations across five categories and took home three awards – and a commendation – at the ceremony in Dundee on 23 March.
Dr Stuart McKay, Senior KTP Manager at UWS, said: “I’m delighted for my team and, by extension, our business, academic, associate and professional service colleagues across the University, without whom none of this would have been possible. “
The winners included the following:
•Professor Naeem Ramzan – who won the Knowledge Exchange Champion award.
In his 20-year career, Naeem has published nearly 200 top-cited publications and co-ordinated major national and EU knowledge exchange projects. He actively supports knowledge exchange projects from grassroots level, through to providing strategic insight to industry thought leaders, including championing the call for culture change within industries such as health and wellbeing.
• Dr Emmanuel Epelle (KTP Associate with ACS Clothing) – who won the Innovator of the Future award.
Emmanuel’s project has developed a novel and automated clothing decontamination process, which is capable of tripling the current throughput and delivering annual revenue increment and economic savings of £128,000. Upon full commercialisation, this is projected to be £5million over two years. The project has amassed £250,000 in additional capital and research funding, while realising seven journal publications and one patent. A fully funded PhD studentship has emanated from the project; thus strengthening the partnership and ensuring continued knowledge exchange.
•UWS’s KTP Centre – which won the Knowledge Exchange Heroes award
The University’s investment in Scotland’s first dedicated KTP Centre, and the professional business development and post-award support services it provides to company, academic and KTP Associate partners, has been fundamental to the success of UWS’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme; delivering genuine business, societal and environmental impact as well as propelling the careers of the next generation of business leaders in the UK and internationally. As a result, UWS has risen rapidly in the UK rankings, from outside the top 50 to number one for management KTPs and top three by size of its overall portfolio, securing 50 KTPs and £10million in funding for business partnerships in the last five years.
There was also a special award for Dr Shu Yang, who was Highly Commended for a project with Consult Lift Services, to embed leadership and management skills alongside modern business systems and processes.
Professor Milan Radosavljevic, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement at UWS, said: “The KTP Centre at UWS continues to grow from strength-to-strength and this recent recognition further bolsters the University’s position as one of the most successful institutions in the UK for Knowledge Transfer Partnership activity.
“It’s wonderful to see so many of UWS’s KTP projects recognised and for the hard work and determination from everyone involved to be celebrated. I am absolutely delighted for this hugely impactful external recognition and look forward to the Centre’s future successes.”
