DWF is set to launch a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) in conjunction with the University of Manchester: a 30-month, part government-funded project overseen by Mayowa Ayodele, a data scientist from the university, which is designed to allow DWF to take advantage of the latest academic expertise in machine learning and new technologies.
A Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is a three-way partnership between an organisation, an academic institution and a graduate that allows businesses to harness the talent and leading academic insight of local universities and apply it in a practical, commercially-driven way for the benefit of their business in order to bring new products to market, increase operational efficiencies or nurture new skills and initiatives internally.
DWF’s KTP is part funded by Innovate UK: a public body which aims to increase the UK’s economic strength and competitive edge by helping organisations gain access to skills and funding. It aims to develop and embed a data-empowered business model focusing on the capture, structure and application of data to transform service delivery, internal processes and product offerings. Ayodele, who recently completed her PHD in Computational Intelligence, will be working closely with DWF’s business intelligence team headed by Geraldine Gallagher.
The KTP is one of several research based projects which DWF has entered into with the University since in 2017 it launched DWF Ventures, its R&D arm. Other projects include membership of a Legal & Fin Tech Group established by the University.
Professor Ian Miles, Academic Lead for the KTP, Alliance Manchester Business School: ” Legal services are among the professional services that are now seeking to seize the opportunities that are emerging around such technical developments as artificial intelligence, big data and data analytics. This project will be simultaneously exploring the technical and organisational elements of establishing new types of support for a particular set of activities within a legal services firm: the results will be relevant to other activities of that firm, and also to legal and professional services more generally, as emerging Artificial Intelligence applications, and evolving demands from clients, continue to foster digital and cultural change”
Jonathan Patterson, who heads DWF Ventures, said: “The legal sector has undergone significant change in recent years and, for legal businesses that foster a culture of innovation and experimentation, there are a huge number of opportunities to take advantage of. We recognise that developing a data-driven approach to legal services will allow us to stay competitive and offer more tailored services to clients, and we have a strategic objective to improve how we process and analyse the data we have and then how we apply those insights in an innovative way. This partnership will allow us to make further progress against this objective, and we are really pleased to have Mayowa as part of our team.”