History
Established in 1995, Knowledge House is a collaborative service offered by the five North East Universities through Universities for the North East (Unis4NE) to help companies access University skills, expertise and specialist resources.
Working together across a wide range of disciplines including industrial design, IT, manufacturing, marketing, life sciences and environmental issues, Knowledge House offers expert solutions for developing ideas and solving problems through collaboration, consultancy, training and research.
Originally planned to provide a service to local SMEs, the service has grown to include large companies, and multi-nationals, nationally and internationally.
Knowledge House operates via a hub and spoke model with a small central Headquarters located outside Sunderland and staff distributed at all of the partner sites. The network and its operations are supported by a web based enquiry handling/project management and client relationship management system (KHIS). Knowledge House delivers almost 200 client contracts on an annual basis.
Business growth averages 25% year on year since 2000. In contrast to networks providing signposting services, Knowledge House offers a ‘cradle to grave' service, stretching from the receipt and circulation of enquiries through project management and delivery to post completion evaluation.
Knowledge House has generated an income in excess of £13m for the universities from over 1,300 projects since 1996, with £7.6m of this coming in the last four years. Knowledge House's profile has risen significantly over time, with more than half (60%) of all enquiries generated since 2003.
The role of Knowledge House as a pioneer in university / business engagement has been recognised at the highest levels of Government and attracted international acclaim. Lord Sainsbury Minister for Science and Innovation for many years, commented "The work that Knowledge House does is really important. It is a role model for other parts of the country." Accolades for the activities of Knowledge House have also come from an OECD report published last year, studying fourteen regions throughout the world, described Knowledge House as ‘global best practice'.
Knowledge House continues to look to add value to the work of its member Universities. Amongst recent developments is a collaborative venture with the Food Processing Faraday Partnership and Leatherhead Food International to develop a Northern Food Industry Innovation Network (NFIIN) across the Northern Way region.
Supported by the Northern Way, the initiative brings together academics from across the North West, Yorkshire and the North East to encourage innovation and research in the food and drink sector. Within this sector, Knowledge House also maintain close working relationships with the regional food group, Northumbrian larder and the sector manager at ONE to ensure that any opportunities for the universities are exploited appropriately.
Organisations that have worked with North East universities through Knowledge House range from multinationals to small businesses. It has established an outstanding track record for helping with all aspects of advancing a business, including initial ideas development, research and development, manufacture, quality assurance, and staff development.
In the past two years, Knowledge House has worked to promote regional business across a much wider area. Knowledge House now have a joint appointment with the regional development agency and UK Trade and Investment. This closer working relationship ensures that the universities have input and involvement with initiatives from both organisations as well as promoting university expertise to an international audience. Following this successful collaboration, Knowledge House has established a presence in Shanghai for the five universities via the ONE office located in Shanghai.
