THE University of Plymouth has entered a ground-breaking £40,000 deal with Saltash-based Spinnaker International to help design its next generation of security boxes.

The arrangement, partly funded by the taxpayer, is the first in the South West under the new Government-backed Shorter Knowledge Transfer Partnership (sKTP) programme.

A recently qualified graduate will work for the company for 40 weeks, supported by top academic staff from the university's faculty of arts, who will also spend some time at Spinnaker. Together they will work on designing and creating a prototype for a new security box.

Spinnaker already leads the market in the development and supply of electronic cash protection systems.

The arrangement has been described as 'win, win, win' by the university's head of knowledge transfer and business development, Emma Hewitt.

She said the scheme provides firms with skills and expertise they haven't already got, gives graduates a job which could become permanent, and helps academics stay up-to-date with developments in industry.

She said: "It's a low-risk way of undertaking a strategic development. The business gets a dedicated resource with a graduate and a team of academics supporting."

The sKTP project is a scaled-down version of the successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme which has been running in the UK since 1975.

In that time the University of Plymouth has worked with up to 400 companies, sending several graduates to some of them.

In total, 5,000 firms have taken part in this nationally, working with companies for between one and three years at a time.

The new, shorter, offshoot was launched in July. Under a KTP or a sKTP the Government funds 60 per cent of the cost of the graduate and the back-up academic help for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and 40 per cent for larger companies with more than 250 employees. The rest of the cash comes from the firm.

Under the university/Spinnaker deal, the firm has contributed £16,000 with the Government chipping in £24,000.

It was designed to help businesses and organisations improve their competitiveness and productivity by mining the knowledge, technology and skills within academic institutions.

Projects can cover product or process design, resource efficiency, technical innovation and commercial development.

The sKTP, for between 10 and 40 weeks, is designed to tackle specific projects and act as a stepping stone for businesses that may not have worked with higher and further education institutions before.

It is solely run by the Technology Strategy Board quango, which the Government has put in charge of promoting business innovation.

The board is also one of 19 partners controlling the larger KTP scheme.

Ms Hewitt said 95 per cent of the Plymouth graduates who had taken part in this programme had found permanent jobs.

And she added: "We want to work with more businesses.

"We have lots of graduates eager to engage, and 800 experienced academic experts helping to deliver solutions during the economic downturn.

"And the university is out there in the real world, feeding back into the curriculum and its teaching. Plus, it identifies research opportunities."

Nick Tripp, Spinnaker's product development and engineering manager, said: "Through working with the University of Plymouth, Spinnaker has had many successes over the last 15 years with KTP and we are looking forward to the sKTP providing us with solutions in much shorter time scales.

"The university put this sKTP together in a very efficient, timely manner, meaning we can be working on new innovations sooner, to gain a competitive advantage."