Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre Business Support

Cranfield University's Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre engages with businesses through a range of mechanisms of varying scale and duration. At the simplest and fastest end, individual academic staff provide consultancy on a per-diem basis, or students on taught modules are used to rapidly analyse and respond to specific live problems set by a company, sometimes within a single week via web conference and a final presentation. Medium-term engagements include four-month individual student projects and three-month team projects addressing significant strategic challenges, giving collaborating companies rapid progress supported by academic expertise. The Centre also runs short courses, which may be bespoke to a company or more general. At the longer-term end, the Centre partners with industry on process, technology and people development, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships lasting six to 36 months, EPSRC-funded fundamental research, Innovate UK technology transfer projects, and fully industry-funded research fellows. The agenda for each engagement is set jointly by Cranfield and the partner company, and scope is shaped by the level of financial commitment involved.

No formal eligibility criteria are stated on the authoritative programme page; manufacturers should check the provider's current requirements before applying.