We understand University culture, the drivers for scientific excellence and the challenges encountered

We have worked extensively with Academia so we understand University culture, the drivers for scientific excellence and the challenges sometimes encountered.

We can help in several ways:

• Engagement with Industry. We will demonstrate how to engage with dynamic, innovative businesses for collaboration – both global large enterprises, and SME’s. This could be for partnering and commercial R&D aims. Specifically, we will show you which companies you should looking out for, how to find them, how to make the approach and how to secure their engagement. Alternatively, can deliver this service for you.

• Commercialisation of research outputs. Creating compelling R&D products and services without commercial exploitation is selling your capabilities short. You may already know the routes-to-market and commercialisation roll-out strategies, however if you need assistance with taking your outputs into the commercial arena, we can help.

• Due-Diligence and IP Landscape Assessment. We are familiar with assessing novelty, advancement above state-of-the-art of research ideas and IP mapping.

• Authoring Compelling Bids. For PI’s, Academics and Researchers, we can help to access Horizon 2020 and Innovate UK grants for your research ideas. We can increase your capacity in grant applications.

• Proposal Evaluation Support. We already work with government agencies in a professional capacity evaluating bids. So we understand what evaluators are looking out for, and this know-how helps us to maximise your opportunities for winning the funding.

• Tailored Horizon 2020 and Innovate UK Bid Writing Masterclasses. There is a proven process to maximising your chances of success which we will demonstrate. We will show you how to optimise the value of your project ideas, how best to pitch them and how to use persuasive methods to influence evaluators and write compelling, robust bids.

• Partner Recruitment. For EU and UK Collaborative Projects. Are you struggling to form links with robust partners for your collaborative projects? We can help here too, whether you are seeking supply-chain SME’s, Large Enterprises, Universities, Trade Associations or Research and Technology Organisations. We will make the approach and secure their commitment for your collaborative projects.

• REF! REF matters, avoid this at your peril! REF determines how much research funding Universities are granted – there’s £2bn up for grabs and they’re used to determine institutions’ rankings in league tables. A poor performance can close a Department, while a top rating means steady funding. 154 UK Universities took part in REF in 2014, with special panels reviewing a total of 190,000 research submissions by 52,000 academic staff. Keystone is able to help you increase your REF ranking by maximising the impact of your research by partnering with the right industrial organisations and creating compelling impact case studies.

• Impact Case Studies for EPSRC bids and REF.