Innovation Brokerage Tool – NCUB

Knowledge Quarter partner, the National Centre for Universities and Business, established to foster better and easier connections between industry and academia, is working in partnership with HEFCE, Innovate UK and RCUK, to develop an online UK-wide Innovation Brokerage Tool: Konfer.

The soft launch of konfer at the House of Commons was very well-received and the NCUB is taking controlled testing and demonstrations out to members

The intention for the tool is facilitate a step change in the ease with which business-university collaborations can be enabled.

  • More specifically the tool will:
    enable business to identify potential opportunities for collaboration (research, researchers, facilities/equipment, funding and support)
  • establish opportunities for universities to find potential research partners
  •  provide a tool where issues and challenges for industry can be addressed through smart searching and automated brokering
  • create an ecology where funding partners – Private Equity Investors, Venture Capitalists, Crowdfunding, charities – can find opportunities.