ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the ways in which humanities early career researchers (ECRs), and the universities that employ them, can use the scheme as a postdoctoral post, and suggest how the development of this area could challenge the marketization of higher education. Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs), under the auspices of Innovate UK, began in 1975 and aim to stimulate economic growth through ‘the better use of [the] knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base’. Innovate UK defines the outcomes of a KTP as often deliver[ing] significant increased profitability for business partners as a direct result of the partnership through improved quality and operations, increased sales and access to new markets. The chapter argues that there is a place for humanities-based ECR-led KTPs – one that is founded specifically on an engagement with the assumptions of profitability on which the current KTP model relies.
