Knowledge Exploitation South West 2

KESW2 ran from September 2005 to September 2008 and built on the success of the original KESW1 project. It has helped to boost the capacity of South West HEIs to engage with business and co-ordinate access and delivery across the region.

The project has surpassed all its 3 year output targets, assisting over 2,200 businesses (more than double the target) and establishing 777 ‘new collaborations’ with business (27% over target). 80 proof of concept projects have been supported and 914 HE staff and students have received entrepreneurship training.

A further two years remains to report on longer term outputs, yet the project has already exceeded its GVA target (gross value added to business), reporting over £15m of GVA against a target of £13m, and has created or safeguarded 100 jobs and created 35 businesses.

A flagship initiative scheme was also trialled as part of the project and this has delivered three important collaborative initiatives in aerospace supply chains, biomass case study development and the ‘Creative Attractions’ project exploring the potential for creative industry impact on the tourism sector.

As part of the project our business web-portal was upgraded and re-launched to provide a 24/7 access point to HE business support services and it will continue to act as an information resource on the HE knowledge base for all SW businesses and business support providers.

Successful elements of KESW2 will be further developed in the new three-year Knowledge Escalator project which began on 1st October 2008.