ACCOLADES like the recent Tees Valley Best New Business Awards are a great way to celebrate the enterprise and innovation of our high-flying young companies, writes Laura Woods of Teesside University.

Every one of the award winners – two of them Darlington businesses - showed just what can be achieved with vision, passion and sheer hard graft. It’s clear that there’s no lack of ideas and ambition in our area, and that innovation is the driver of business success.

But for even the most forward-thinking businesses, growing the capacity for innovation can be a real challenge. It’s not just about money: finding the time and resources to identify opportunities, introduce new technologies, or perhaps improve operating efficiency, can be all but impossible. Yet working on the business – as opposed to working in the business – is a vital ingredient for growth. It’s one of the reasons why businesses and universities are urged to work together, to bring new thinking to business challenges and develop new approaches that deliver real benefit to the bottom line.

There’s a name for the joint process by which business and academic know-how come together and create new ways of doing things – it’s called knowledge transfer. It’s a partnership between the business, the university and a talented graduate brought into the company to deliver the work.

For companies of any size, but particularly for SMEs, the knowledge transfer model is an excellent way of getting that deep understanding of a business and applying specialist expertise to come up with innovative solutions, products and processes and even new business models.

At Teesside University, building these partnerships with business is a very high priority. We know you have business challenges and opportunities; we know you have the ideas; and we know that time and resources are in short supply. Through a knowledge transfer project, we can bring in new knowledge and skills to help improve your performance, productivity and competitiveness – and remember, innovation doesn’t have to be about technology.

The benefits of knowledge transfer include increased annual profits before tax, new knowledge and skills in the organisation, and a solid, long-term relationship between business and university. Projects can last between six months and three years, depending on your needs, and what’s more, they bring with them significant financial support.

Knowledge transfer is an ideal way of turning innovation into business. If your business is growing, and you want to know more, get in touch at business@tees.ac.uk.