Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) is a major European Convergence programme led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. Benefiting from European Social Funds (ESF), KESS will support collaborative research projects (Research Masters and PhD) with external partners based in the Convergence area of Wales (West Wales and the Valleys). KESS will run from 2009 until 2014 and will provide 400+ PhD and Masters places.
Research Masters elements are integrated with a high-level skills training programme, leading to a Postgraduate Skills Development Award.
The key objectives of KESS are:
- To increase the research capacity of small to medium enterprises (SMEs)by linking with a PhD / Masters project
- To encourage SMEs to undertake research and recruit researchers
- Toprepareandtrainindividualstocontribute to research as professionals
- To support the development of key technologies in the Convergence area
- To promote Higher-level Skills Development KESS is designed to meet the higher-level skills needs of the Welsh Government’s priority economic sectors – Digital Economy; Low Carbon Economy; Health and Bioscience; Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing.
KESS facts
- KESS has provided 453 PhD and Masters places (230 PhD/223 Research Masters)
- Each project has an integrated higher-level skills training and development programme, leading to a Postgraduate Skills Development Award (PSDA)
- Each project works in collaboration with a company/organisation based in the Convergence area
- All of the Universities in Wales are participating in the project
- The project is tracking people who complete KESS studentships so as to gather meaningful destination data for the region
- KESS is being externally evaluated by Old Bell 3
- The total KESS budget is £31.5 million
- We have a strong KESS Alumni (scholars and company partners) network (operating through LinkedIn): we plan to use this network for a mentoring programme in KESS II
KESS Stats
- 61% of organisations participating in KESS are SMEs
- KESS has 380 companies/organisations who have been actively involved with the project on its database
- Distribution amongst the priority sectors: 50% Health & Biosciences; 20% Low Carbon Economy; 17% Digital Economy (ICT); 11% Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing; 2% Other
KESS Extras
Every KESS scholar attends a residential KESS Grad School to work on business- related training and development activities. Through the European Universities Association (EUA) we’ve established the European Industrial Doctoral School (E.I.D.S.), which means we can work with partner Universities across Europe and offer transnational opportunities to our KESS scholars and company partners.
KESS has also established a bilingual doctoral training and development portal for use by all of the participating Universities, whereby opportunities can be open to all involved in the project.
