The Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) is pleased to welcome Kareem El-Abiary, its first associate to be funded through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme overseen by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The aim of the scheme is to transfer the knowledge and expertise of an academic institution, in this case the Vacuum Group of ASTeC, into a UK commercial organisation to promote collaborative research, directly impacting on product development and increasing commercial competitiveness.

Over the next three years, Kareem will spend the majority of his time working with Micromass Limited at their new headquarters in Wilmslow, Cheshire, supporting advanced research activities in mass spectrometry.

Gordon Jones, Principal Mechanical Engineer for Micromass commented “This KTP is a major collaboration for Micromass; the research activities that Kareem will be engaged in will be in major enabling technologies that will inform our product road map, and direct our design, development and manufacturing activities”.

Joe Herbert, Group Leader of the ASTeC Vacuum Science Group added “This is a great achievement for the team after a number of years of close association with Micromass. The KTP appears to be the right vehicle for taking our collaboration further with additional opportunities on the horizon.”

Kareem, who is already engaged in developing test apparatus at the Wilmslow site as well as data collection at Daresbury, will also receive training in areas such as finance and project management through the KTP scheme which aims to develop broad-skilled and highly employable early career professionals as part of its remit.