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News release – 26th November 2012
Phoenix employee receives ‘Business Leader of Tomorrow’ award from Government minister
An employee at Phoenix in Leicester has received a prestigious national award in recognition of her work to boost business at the Leicester cinema and art centre.
Katie Flaherty – currently business development manager at Phoenix – received the award for successfully managing a two year ‘Knowledge Transfer Partnership’ (KTP) project with Phoenix whilst she was employed at Leicester’s De Montfort University (DMU), supervised by Dr Tracy Harwood of DMU’s Institute of Creative Technologies.
As a consequence of the project, Phoenix – which is a charitable organisation - secured National Portfolio Status and more than £450,000 of new grant funding from The Arts Council, and has positioned itself as an international centre for digital arts.
Katie was presented one of a total of five ‘Business Leader of Tomorrow’ awards by David Willetts, Universities and Science Minister, at a ceremony in London on Thursday 22nd November as part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership awards. Katie’s project received its main funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, the Technology Strategy Board and the Economic & Social Research Council which are funded by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board.
KTP is a Government programme which enables organisations to work with higher education or R&D organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance.
“Knowledge transfer partnerships are perhaps best known for helping commercial organisations, but Katie’s project is a great example of how they can also help the not-for-profit arts sector,” said John Rance, CEO of Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre. “Working with Katie, and tapping into the expertise and skills available at DMU, has enabled Phoenix to innovate and position itself as a leader in an emerging new field.”
KTPs help UK businesses to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance by accessing the knowledge, technology and skills that are available within the UK’s world class knowledge base (universities, colleges and research organisations), through the development of collaborative partnerships which stimulate innovation and can transform the participating organisations.
The knowledge sought is embedded into the company through a project or projects undertaken by a recently qualified person (known as the KTP Associate) recruited specifically to work on that project. There are some 800 KTPs across the country, funded by thirteen Government organisations and led by the Technology Strategy Board. Each Partnership is part-funded by Government with the balance of costs coming from the company partner.
