December 11, 2019, by Postgraduate Placements Nottingham

New ‘Productivity through Innovation’ programme promises dividends for postgraduates and businesses in the East Midlands

As lead partners in the new Productivity Through Innovation programme (working with Nottingham Trent University and the University of Derby), the University of Nottingham Graduate School’s Postgraduate Placements Nottingham (PPN) team are looking forward to adding an innovative range of placement opportunities to their award-winning provision beginning this summer.

Building on the very successful and established Postgraduate Placement Scheme, which has just delivered its 1000th placement, the three year, collaborative PTI programme has received £7.1 million in funding and will see local universities, academic staff, postgraduate students, and regional businesses working together to enhance the economic productivity of the local region.

“[It’s an] exciting opportunity for businesses to tap into the high-level skills available at the three universities and to examine their businesses and how innovation and support can help enhance productivity,” says Professor Chris Gerada, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Industrial Strategy, Business Engagement and Impact at the University of Nottingham.

Outcomes for businesses who host placement students through the programme are expected to include increased productivity, new innovation, increased turnover, improved outputs and GVA, and reduction in costs.

“What’s special about this new strand to our placements offer is that PTI placement projects will be formulated using business productivity diagnostics devised by leading university experts,” says PPN Placement Delivery manager, Paul Rice, “The fact that we can offer academically rigorous projects with verifiable outcomes means that we will be able to place postgraduate students with top-calibre businesses in high-growth fields including biotechnology, precision manufacturing, and engineering.”

“Postgraduates who do these placements will really benefit from getting a deep-dive, highly focused, real world experience of working in dynamic and innovative organisations.”

Alongside this exciting new PTI offer Postgraduates Placements Nottingham (PPN) will continue to provide the usual range of rewarding and challenging placements across a wide variety of businesses, organisations and fields.


Businesses, students, or staff who want to find out more about what PPN has to offer can find out more from our website and read case studies at our blog.

Posted in Placements