Insight to impact: what we learnt at KEUK 2025

Earlier this month the NCUB team took to the crease at Edgbaston for the inaugural Knowledge Exchange UK (KEUK) conference.  

Over two days, NCUB showcased our digital brokerage service konfer to hundreds of knowledge exchange (KE) professionals. We spoke with many representatives from UK universities, and shared the immense benefits of NCUB membership and using konfer to collaborate with businesses.  

The KEUK (formerly PraxisAuril) conference is a fantastic opportunity to connect with those who work in KE, and NCUB was pleased to take up a stand to speak with those who use konfer in their day-to-day work. We heard how KE professionals aim to get more value from konfer through triaging the opportunities we curate, to posting their own calls for partners live on konfer. It was gratifying to hear examples of positive outcomes through active konfer connections. 

It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces stopping by to say hello, giving us the chance to reconnect and catch up. Plenty of new faces also stopped by  stimulating fresh conversations about the broad array of NCUB work. This includes konfer, but also our policy engagement – such as our business-led R&D Taskforce, showcasing booklets of business-university collaboration, and the flagship State of the Relationship report. 

KEUK’s conference features several fantastic talks and practical workshops on KE. On Day 1, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell – Deputy Chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council (ISAC) and member of our business-led R&D Taskforce – opened the conference with a talk on the new industrial strategy, and what this means for KE. Dame Rothwell gave fascinating insight into how the ISAC is undertaking its role as advisors to the Government, and the importance of knowledge exchange and universities to bringing about delivering on the aims of the new industrial strategy. She also spelled out the number of government reviews underway and emphasised the need for all these new strategies to pull in the same direction to have any hope of success. 

On Day 2, NCUB CEO Dr Joe Marshall chaired a session on the new emerging models of university-business collaboration. We heard from Sophoclis Patsias, University Research Liaison Manager for Rolls Royce, who discussed the immense importance of collaboration with universities to their business. Aston University Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise Professor Mike Caine emphasised the need for the whole R&I ecosystem to work together to get the best out of university-business collaboration, and shared how this is taking shape in Aston’s work as part of the new Birmingham Innovation District and Universities 4.0.  

It was great to hear from Innovate UK Business Connect’s Shona Campbell, who works as a Knowledge Transfer Advisor. 2025 marks 50 years of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), and Ms Campbell discussed how KTPs have grown and evolved to ensure they achieve greater benefits for the UK. Finally, Tony Boccanfuso, President and Chief Executive of UIDP, gave an international overview of university-business collaboration, calling on higher education and policymakers to put the needs of businesses front and centre when looking for ways to collaborate. We’re grateful to each of the panellists for taking the time to support our session.  

As ever with KEUK conferences, it was wonderful to see so many KE colleagues in the same room and to discuss NCUB’s work. We had a fantastic two days meeting many of you, forging new connections and catching up with old friends. A hat tip to KEUK and their team on the event. 

We’ll be reaching out to everyone who stopped by to learn more about how NCUB and konfer can support their knowledge exchange activities. If you’d like to learn more about NCUB’s membership and policy offerings, or our konfer service, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team by emailing konfer-support@ncub.co.uk.

Stephen Jones

NCUB Policy Lead – Research & Innovation