KTPs span a wide range of academic disciplines and industry sectors. Your KTP could be anything from recipe development for a leading food business, developing marketing campaigns to reach the socially disadvantaged or applying AI to environmental sustainability or health; the projects are diverse; the opportunities are huge.

Typical challenges might focus on designing and introducing new products or better processes, re-organising production facilities, introducing improved quality systems and technology, or developing marketing strategies to break into new markets. The possibilities for transformation via a KTP are almost endless; likewise for KTP Associates. 

All KTP salaries are extremely competitive. As a KTP Associate, your salary will be decided by the company in line with industry standards and with any other company employees at a similar level. Don’t forget that, in addition to salary, an Associate on a standard two-year KTP project will have access to over £8,000 for training and travel.

One of the key benefits of becoming a KTP Associate is access to a ring-fenced training and development budget. Associates are encouraged to spend approximately 10% of their time on training and development activities.Training requirements are agreed with your academic and company supervisors, to ensure that any skills gaps are addressed at an early stage. The KTP Associate Development & Travel budget can be accessed to attend conferences, courses, trade-shows, networking events that are relevant to your KTP. The programme can also support membership of professional bodies and is a route to chartership.

Each KTP Associate is also required to attend two one-week training residential modules to develop core people and project management skills that enable you to manage the KTP and get the most from the people and resources around you.

As a member of University staff, you will also have access to staff training courses, library and sports facilities as well as the option to join the University Pension Scheme.

In general your day-to-day place of work is at the KTP company. You will work to the company’s hours of work and annual leave entitlement. Depending on the project stage and tasks involved there may be periods of time that you will need to access university facilities and equipment to complete various tasks. This will agreed between all partners at the outset of the KTP project. On average KTP Associates will receive approximately 0.5 day per week supervision and support from the academic team. You are supported, not only by colleagues from within the university and business but also by an independent project officer, who is the Knowledge Transfer Advisor who monitors your project progress on behalf of Innovate UK.

Some roles are open for students who are nearing completion of their students to apply – please look at the Candidate Information booklet to see if this is the case for the roles you are interested in.

If we currently do not have any roles that match your profile, please email us on ktp@qub.ac.uk to register your interest in KTP roles at Queen’s University Belfast. Please state your discipline and area of interest, and we will contact you should a role arise that matches your profile.   

Please use 'KTP Associate Role – Register my Interest' in the subject line of your email and we will respond to let you know we have recieved your request.

Applying for a KTP Associate role is a competitive process. If you reach the interview stage, a competency based interview will take place at the company premises where possible. Depending on the nature of the role, you may be asked to carry out a presentation as part of the interview process, or complete an unseen technical test or challenge. This will be communicated to you ahead of your interview.