Katlas Technology connected with Brunel University London on konfer earlier this year and together they submitted three collaborative funding proposals with a total value of £1.75 million.
Developed by the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), konfer is a free-to-use innovation collaboration platform matching universities with innovative businesses. This enables the translation of university research to provide real world solutions and show measurable impact.
Brunel University London has a long history combining academic rigour with a practical and entrepreneurial approach pioneered by their namesake Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Their Research, Innovate and Emerge (RIEm) Programme uses research to help SMEs innovate. Free to UK companies, the programme strengthens research and innovation capacity in companies and equips them to gain easier access to government innovation funding.
Through konfer, the RIEm programme was targeted to distinct groups of businesses and matched against Brunel’s research strengths including Health and Wellbeing. RIEm Programme Lead, Dr Michael Joseph, said ‘konfer generated significant interest from SMEs for Brunel and we are now engaging with seven different companies for this programme alone.’
Katlas Technology, a UK technology company, joined Brunel’s RIEm programme and is an active participant of the second cohort.
Dr Joseph added: ‘konfer really simplified the process of finding businesses who are ready to innovate and have the appetite to benefit from the skills, knowledge, and experience within the university. konfer's help is much appreciated in saving time searching for and finding relevant companies. I am grateful to everyone at NCUB for their support.’
Katlas Technology offers industry a platform for web 3.0 applications with proven plumbing for sustainable usage of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Healthcare. It is a portable wallet-to-wallet system operating on the essential plumbing for cyber-physical systems. It is built over and connects various trending technologies such as robotics, 3-D printing, wireless communications, medical devices, machine sensors, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
According to Edward Kole, CEO, at Katlas Technology, they were able to build a profile and respond to the opportunity to join Brunel’s RIEm Programme immediately and receive communications with the sponsor directly after joining the RIEm Programme. Without konfer Katlas would have highly likely missed this opportunity.
He further added: "The Brunel RIEm programme helped me to understand the complex application process of the funding bodies in UK. It also helped me in crafting a successful application that has won a grant. I got an award of £50,000 from Innovate UK in the first application I made after attending the programme in Brunel. I will highly recommend the programme to any innovative SMEs looking for funding and to collaborate with university partners. "
After joining the RIEm programme in February 2023, Katlas and Brunel University London worked together to submit three collaborative funding proposals with a total value of £1.75 million.
Brunel’s RIEm programme helps businesses to access innovation funding for collaborative research and innovation with a unique methodology. Since its launch in 2022, RIEm has helped 48 SMEs to receive a total of £650,000 in addition to some awards for innovation.
Brunel University is now inviting applications for the 2024 Research, Innovate and Emerge programme.
Update February 2024: RIEm programme is highly commended