BUSINESSES around Yorkshire have been urged to take advantage of newly-available funding.

An extra £30m will be made available as part of Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, which allows businesses of all sizes to partner with world-leading academics and researchers at the University of York to learn how new skills and thinking can improve their competitiveness and productivity.

A two-day conference will be held in York this week, with experts sharing their ideas to visitors, and explaining how the funding and partnerships can help.

The funding will enable many more graduates and post-doctoral researchers to find entrepreneurial roles in companies across the UK.

Professor Jon Timmis from the University of York, said: "KTP enables Higher Education Institutions to apply their wealth of knowledge and expertise to important business problems, facilitate collaborations that lead to measurable research impact, and provide an employment opportunity for high-calibre graduates.

"KTPs are run with companies large and small, but are particularly valuable for SMEs with limited internal research capabilities. They can provide invaluable help to organisations, allowing them to improve their competitiveness, productivity, performance and profitability."

Dr Ruth McKernan CBE, chief executive of Innovate UK is one of the speakers, and said: "We have 40 years of data which shows just how fantastic KTPs are and the real difference they can make to businesses by increasing knowledge exchange from our universities."

To find out more go to ktp.innovateuk.org