During this period, the partners have been mainly involved in getting into the field and understanding the state of the art. A huge amount of data has been collected, both in the form of training programmes focused on knowledge transfer and soft skills around the World, and in terms of interviews with KT professionals and experts. Questions like the following have been considered during data collection: What skills are offered to knowledge transfer professionals in training courses? Which kind of skills KT professionals usually have? What other skills might be crucial to include in training programmes? Which soft skills are included in training programmes that aim at improving them?  

As reported at the launch of KT Sof Skills: "The project aims to improve the competencies of KT professionals, especially soft and transversal skills that can support the transformation of higher education institutions into more inclusive organisations”.  

We believe that the first activities undertaken have helped a lot in this respect, representing the ground for the next activities, to then reach the ultimate goal of the KT Soft Skills project, that is to remove the barriers to innovation and to support cross-sector collaboration between HEIs, businesses and citizens, to become more impactful, effective and inclusive. 

Going deeper into the activities carried out by the Consortium, 30 case studies (i.e, training programmes) focused on KT and soft skills around the World have been in-depth analyzed to come up with best practices. Also, 60 in-depth interviews with KT professionals and experts across Europe have been collected to better understand the skills they posses, as well as those required and desirable to effectively manage KT activities. 24 KT professionals in higher education institutions, 18 KT professionals in business and 12 KT experts have been involved. 

Different focuses for the case studies and interviews have been identified for the different partners involved in the project, in order to align as much as possible with each partner’ competencies, knowledge and background.  

The case studies and interviews activities will be included in the Knowledge Transfer Skills Investigation Report, developed as first official deliverable of the KTSofSkills project.  

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