Purple Door
Staying at the forefront of technology and good business practice can give you a vital competitive edge, but it is often expensive and time-consuming, especially for hard-pressed smaller businesses.
Purple Door can resolve this problem by providing access to the facilities and combined expertise of over 1000 academic and research staff whose skills range from renowned scientists and technologists to experienced management consultants.
Services we offer include:
Contract Research - This is when an organisation has a specific business or industrial problem to solve or needs to carry out a particular piece of research.
Joint Research Projects - These involve partnerships between the University and business organisations to conduct research for mutual financial benefit, or to secure research grants. There are a number of financial schemes that exist to help SMEs become involved in collaborative research. Through Purple Door, the University of Portsmouth can provide assistance and guidance regarding funding bodies such as DTI and EC.
Consultancy - This is when an organisation taps into academic advice to diagnose problems and formulate solutions. We have a long tradition of supplying specialist consultants to meet the specific needs of clients. Our consultants have been contracted in areas such as total quality management, environmental assessment, business development and product development. They have also been engaged as expert witnesses in legal areas.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) - This cost-efficient scheme, part-funded by the Government, is designed to help organisations apply high-level University expertise to their business by working in partnership with academics or researchers.
The project, which normally last two years, funds a full-time researcher working at your company, but you pay only a percentage of their costs. The rest is funded by the DTI and the researcher remains on the payroll of the University. So, as well as the cost saving for your business, you get direct access to the technology base and resources of the University throughout the programme.
The University of Portsmouth has helped more than forty companies achieve their investment objectives through KTPs in the last few years.
Find out more about the scope of our Research and Knowledge Transfer and the services that we offer to Business and Public Sector Customers.