CUC Collaborative Research Programmes
Collaborative PhD programme
The CUC partner institutions will deliver 40 collaborative PhD studentships in the period between January 2011 and March 2015. These studentships are fully funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), under its convergence funding for Cornwall. Each studentship is a collaboration between two CUC partner institutions and a business based in Cornwall. Where a suitable academic collaboration partner cannot be identified from within the partnership, a higher education partner from outside of CUC may be sought.
Businesses or business clusters are at the centre of each PhD programme, and are actively involved in the research throughout its duration. Businesses have to demonstrate how the knowledge resulting from the research will be exploited and bring benefit to the company. Public sector organisations are also eligible research partners; however, these are limited to 20% of the overall number of PhDs, i.e. to 8 in total.
The studentships are based around five themes pertinent to the Cornish economy: Low Carbon Economical Development, Enterprise & Entrepreneurship, Key Sectors, The Digital Economy and The Eco Town.
CUC Partners will draw on the expertise of the existing Great Western Research (GWR) team in the delivery of this collaborative programme. This includes: procedures for assessing PhD proposals, customised postgraduate training, and an Access Grid node to enhance connectivity at Tremough Campus.
For more details, or to apply, please visit the Great Western Research site
Research Capacity Development (Legacy) Programme
CUC’s collaborative research programme is complemented by a Legacy programme designed to share best practice within the CUC partnership to assist the non-research intensive partners to develop capacity.
This is delivered through a mentoring programme aimed at developing research supervisory skills, complemented by a series of workshops.
Workshop topics include doctoral supervision, writing proposals for research funding, specific detailed discipline related research topic updates, perspectives from invited experts in discipline theme areas and underpinning topics such as management of IPR and patents, and contract research. Business partners are also able to participate in relevant workshops.
Postgraduate taught masters and masters by research programmes
Building on the support for postgraduate training under an existing ESF-funded programme, CUC partners are collectively able to offer further ESF support for an additional 240 masters level students (‘starters’). This will enable about 60% of applicants to complete a full masters degree, and the remainder to participate in flexibly delivered masters level modules.
Project support is aimed at courses within the CUC partnership which can support interaction with businesses; for example where the student undertakes a business-focused dissertation. Places on this programme will only be available to Cornish residents. To find out whether any ESF bursaries are available for a particular Masters course, please contact the CUC partner institution offering the programme.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership is a joint project between a university and a business. It is a significant project that must be of strategic value, enabling businesses to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance. It is achieved by forming a partnership between the business and an academic institution, giving access to skills and expertise to help the business develop.
KTPs can vary in length from 1-3 years (classic KTP) and from 10-40 weeks (shorter KTP), depending on the needs of the business and the desired outcomes.
For more information about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships visit the KTP website.