The Innovatory has been assisting local businesses to enhance their capacity to innovate since 2012. Through funding 67 PhD projects, 15 Masters and numerous internships and industrial dissertation projects we have helped to increase jobs, inward investment and to develop new products, processes and services for hundreds of SMEs in the region.
Our achievements have been recognised through a number of awards including the RCUK/Praxis Unico Impact award for ‘Outstanding Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Initiative’, a Green Gown award for Research and Innovation and the Mersey Maritime Environmental Award. Our projects have also been featured as exemplar collaborative commercial research in a BEIS Science and Innovation Audit examining Clean Growth in the Northwest Coastal Arc.
Our success has been achieved through a multi-level approach to collaborative industrial research. Businesses may have commercial ideas that have the potential to increase profitability or performance, but lack the requisite knowledge or facilities to bring them to market. Through a process of expertise matching and working alongside academics and the companies The Innovatory develops these ideas into focussed research projects, designed with commercial outputs as the primary driver. This has led to award winning commercial initiatives for SMEs engages with the Innovatory and helped them to discover and open new markets.
Depending on the needs of the business projects can range from highly intensive PhD level 3-year projects or 1-2 year Masters to 6 month dissertations and 1 month internships. The Innovatory therefore offers a valuable route for students and graduates to interact with businesses. Our projects enables them to gain experience in delivering commercial research to solve real-life issues at all levels.
