Dr Neil Findlay, Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) KE Associate at the University of Glasgow, used konfer to find potential commercial partners to deliver research impact. IAA awards fund short-term projects to accelerate impact from funded research projects, and often result in longer-term strategically important projects with industry partners.
The University of Glasgow used konfer - the digital collaboration platform from the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) - to help identify new potential partners for a few of their more mature technologies that have been supported by IAA awards.
The projects included a smart thermoplastic tape for structural health monitoring of wind turbines, and a RFID based smart occupancy and asset monitoring system assessing room/desk occupancy in live time.
Dr Findlay said: “We wanted to develop these projects and find collaborators that could support testing and larger scale deployment, in order for them to become closer to market-ready.”
The collaboration calls were posted on konfer, and shared with ‘targeted’ potential partners using smart-matching technology using digital profiles of ‘innovation ready’ businesses.
Dr Findlay continued: “Konfer was really easy to use and the support from the team was excellent; any queries I had were dealt with quickly and effectively. We received a number of connections on konfer which led to discussions with potential partner organisations. The opportunities are still live on konfer, and continue to register interest from external partners.”
“For anyone in the academic community wondering whether to use konfer, I would recommend giving it a go. We are very happy with the connections we’ve made, and will continue to make use of the platform.