You might not think innovation can be found by looking in the past, but my experience of an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership at a historic royal palace shows that it very much can.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a scheme to help businesses innovate and grow through a collaboration between a business, a university and a graduate.

A modern Formula 1 car consists of approximately 15,000 individual parts each meticulously designed and engineered for performance, safety, and aerodynamics. Every part plays a crucial role in optimising the cars performance in a highly competitive racing environment, so if one part is broken then the whole car and performance suffers.

A Formula 1 car isn’t just a race machine - it’s a symbol of innovation, precision, teamwork, and adaptability, all elements equally as crucial in the business world to achieve success. Every year without fail, a Formula 1 team will evolve its car design and operations for the following year in a relentless pursuit of perfection.

Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme is marking 50 years in 2025. Since 1975 it has supported over 14,000 transformative projects and generated billions to the UK economy.