Research and Development Partnerships
Benefits to participating companies
How does it work?
Intellectual Property rights
Past R&D partnership examples
The Department of Computer Science, through IT Wales, can offer companies free assistance with research and development projects.
These projects are based on ideas put forward by business and developed by final year and Masters degree Computer Science students.
Industrial research and development projects, organised by IT Wales, have won Welsh Development Agency technology prizes and awards every
year since 1994 www.swan.ac.uk/compsci/prizes/
The projects aim to provide students with the opportunity to explore a particular topic in-depth, design and implement a complete system
and experience the life cycle of a software project.
Projects can involve many or all of the following:
Specification
Prototyping
Evaluation exercises
Software production
Feasibility studies (with practical elements)
Demonstration of ideas
Consultancy for project design
Free access to state of the art equipment
Free development of prototypes by project students
Projects may constitute tasks that would otherwise be unrealistic or impractical to conduct with company resources
Many successful projects are exploratory in nature and by definition would have been a high risk for the business in terms of investment
of resources.
High level technological skills at no extra cost which might not otherwise be available
The chance to assess, with limited cost and in the working environment, a potential graduate employee
The opportunity to enhance links and exchange knowledge and ideas with the University
Projects often form a valuable part of a company's strategic development.
The company contacts IT Wales with an initial idea. (register your interest here)
IT Wales sets up a meeting with the company and academics from the Department of Computer Science. During this meeting the idea is fully
explored.
A project specification is then developed during this consultancy phase.
The specification highlights the aims and objectives, the structure and timing and the required hardware and software resources. Funding
is available for any required hardware and/or software.
IT Wales, in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science will allocate the project to a student with relevant technical skills.
A member of the academic staff specialising in the subject area concerned will supervise the project, meeting with the student on a
weekly basis.
In addition, an R&D project will normally involve periodic meetings between the company, the University supervisor and the student.
General guidelines about the ownership of Intellectual Property are as follows:
If the project is put forward by a company then the company will own the intellectual property that arises out of the research
If the project is proposed by the University, supervisor or candidate, the intellectual property rights remain with the University
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