THE USE OF AN INTERNET PORTAL WITH COLLABORATION SOFTWARE TO FACILITATE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER BETWEEN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR AND THE FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRY IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND

Newcastle University has been involved in technology transfer for many decades. In agriculture this has historically been via demonstration field scale research, on farms owned or rented by the University. More recently strong links with local companies have been enhanced by the agreement of all five Universities to use a common virtual system to broker optimal combinations of academic engagement to solve industry problems using a "one stop shop" system linked by a virtual portal and project management system called "Knowledge House".
This system has now been developed further utilising secure virtual collaboration tools, embedded in a portal framework to enable local businesses to link up with academics, to form multi-disciplinary teams, to rapidly solve industry problems and aid development.
Aided by the Regional Development Agencies One North East, Yorkshire Forward and North West Development Agency projects across the North of England have been linked under the Northern Way Initiative. Companies utilising a startup fund of £5000 are using the best academic knowledge base from the whole of the North of England to deliver innovation to SMEs and support its development and dissemination of the best practice that ensues. This Knowledge Transfer process is also linked to partners in the wider Food Industry namely Food Processing Faraday Knowledge Transfer Network, Leatherhead Food International and Camden And Chorleywood Food Reasearch Association.
Both of these Agencies are based in the South of England and find the cost of travel and subsistance added to the cost of training is preventing many SMEs in the North of England from attending near market research dissemination and Best Practice Knowledge Transfer. The virtual collaboration areas on the portal are proving invaluable as a focus to disseminate best practice and to organise training events in local venues which are accessible for the SMEs to enable them to share best practice by knowledge transfer and training thereby supporting an increase in innovation in the North of England.