Bright sparks light the way to success; Around pounds 7m has been earmarked to help North East technology companies develop new products and processes by working with some of the country's brightest young minds. Peter McCusker reports.

Byline: Peter McCusker

TYNESIDE people-tracking firm TrackaPhone believes the work of a postgraduate student may help it expand into a whole new area of business and another postgrad has helped a Gateshead company save pounds 250,000.

And it's not just these companies who have benefited from the recently rolled out North East Studentships programme (NESt) - it has now placed postgraduate students at more than 350 North East businesses.

Originally launched as a pilot programme at Newcastle and Durham Universities in 2007, it now involves the region's three other universities, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside. A spokesman for regional development agency One North East explains: "The North East Studentship provides full or partial funding for study at Masters or PhD level at one of the five universities in North East England combined with work-based placements at companies in the region.

"While studying, the graduates get the chance to work on a ground-breaking project with one of these companies.

These placements last between one and three months. Companies in the business of innovation know how vital it is to attract the most innovative employees.

"NESt enables companies to do just that. It allows a business to work with the highest calibre of postgraduates on groundbreaking projects with no extra cost. It is a great way to get tomorrow's high flyers today."

One such graduate is James Nicholson of Northumbria University who has been testing a new mobile phone system which could help parents protect their children by providing their location at any time.

The School of Psychology and Sports Sciences has been testing the TrackaPhone People Locator monitoring system to see if it is a feasible product for child safety.

Researcher James has carried out a two week trial, working with parents in the North East who have children aged 6-10 and 13-17. During the trial, the children's mobile phones were registered with TrackaPhone's People Locater Service and the study tested the system to record the children's locations. Parents were able to access the information at any time.

He said: "Our study tested a protection monitoring system on families and more specifically on younger, dependent children, in order to assess its feasibility. It is taking a product which has a successful business application and looking at how successfully it might be used in a home and family environment."

James began working with Tracka-Phone in September last year and his research will form the thesis for his Masters degree.

Phil Derry, chief executive of the North Tyneside-based company said: "The trial that we have carried out with James is at the very basic level, and working with researchers at Northumbria University has given us a great opportunity to test the feasibility of a potential new market and enable us to share knowledge across the business and academic sectors."

Stanley Vickers, of Middlesbrough, has similarly benefited. Sara Zarei is currently doing a computing-related PhD with Teesside University and during her placement at Stanley Vickers she instigated a system upgrade which has led to savings of almost pounds 30,000 for the company. And University of Sunderland MSc Science Graduate Anthony Ofoegbu, 31, has been working with TWP Packaging in Gateshead. He was instrumental in setting up the new Material Requirement Planning system and within a few weeks it had saved the company over pounds 250,000.

ONE has allocated in excess of pounds 5m for the NESt and the individual universities have all agreed to provide at least one third match-funding.

Students undertake work placements in regional businesses aligned to ONE's Three Pillars Strategy, namely: Health Sciences and Healthcare, Energy and Process Technologies.

ONE highlights four primary beneficiaries in the NESt programme Regional businesses benefit from the provision of academic expertise to solve particular problems, develop new opportunities and support the acquisition of higher level skills.

Students. The financial support given allows them to concentrate on their studies.

The universities benefit from the direct recruitment of more high-quality postgraduates and research capacities are increased from the networks formed with regional businesses.

The region and its economy benefit as the project attracts graduates to the North East.

The ONE spokesman added: "These projects provide an excellent oppor-tunity to attract, to the North East, graduate students of the highest calibre, to demonstrate to them what the region has to offer in terms of career and lifestyle possibilities.

"The research projects transfer knowledge between the university and the participating businesses, as well as providing direct support to these businesses for the duration of the projects. "The ability of businesses to introduce new products, processes and services will be a particular focus, thus addressing a major current constraint in many regional businesses."

"Business-student-university interaction is one of the most efficient ways to achieve knowledge transfer and graduate retention."

For more information visit www.northeaststidentships.com or www.nest.ac.uk EAGER TO GET INTO THE WORKPLACE NEWCASTLE University student Tegan Smith says she can't wait to start her new job with Morpeth-based pharmaceutical company Piramal Healthcare.

"I have no doubt the experience I gained during my industrial placement helped me to get the job," says the 22-year-old South African who came to Newcastle University four years ago to study a BSc in Zoology. On completing her degree she took up an MSc in Clean Technologies which included six months with a mechanical engineering company as part of the North East Studentship programme (NESt).

Helping the company to implement an environmental management system, she looked at key factors such as waste disposal and energy use in an effort to bring the company in line with international environmental standards.

"It was such a fantastic experience and gave me an opportunity to put the skills I had learnt into practice," says Tegan.

"What the MSc did was allow me to take my zoology a step further to find ways of protecting the environment for the future.

"It gave me practical skills and a career path and I would recommend it to anyone."

CAPTION(S):

SHARING Simon Derry and his father Phil of TrackaPhone. BRIGHT MINDS Successful members of the North East Studentship (NESt) programme, L-R: Tegan Smith, Sara Zarei, John Boyle, James Nicholson and Anthony Ofoegbu.