Partner Article

North East experts to assess R&D grant requests

An organisation that unites businesses and university expertise has again secured a national contract to help development agencies assess the millions of pounds’ worth of research and development requests they receive each year.

Knowledge House, based in Newcastle, will continue to be responsible for finding academic staff in the region’s five universities to assess public and private sector grant requests for nine regional development agencies (RDAs) around the UK.

Knowledge House’s service to the RDAs will include the London Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward, One North East and Advantage West Midlands.

It previously won the contract in 2006 through a tender process run by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mark Jackson, business development director at Knowledge House, said: “We’re thrilled to have been appointed the contract, which echoes the faith the RDAs have in the service we provide and the expert assessors we have to hand in our universities.

“While Innovation is a key driver for regional economic development, the RDAs’ funds can only stretch so far – it’s our job at Knowledge House to find the expert who can assess each application on it merits and give a sound recommendation on how feasible and financially worthwhile it is for each development agency to pursue.”

Projects assessed by Knowledge House in the past have included technology development in health and life sciences, IT and digital technologies and physical and environmental sciences.

Mark added: “As we start to climb out of the recession, we believe that the number of businesses vying for funding to capitalise on a resurgent market will increase dramatically, and we’re looking forward to utilising the huge pool of experts we have in the universities.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .