Smartlife Inc, a Manchester based SME, has been awarded funding to embark on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project with The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences (SSES) at the University of Kent.

Smartlife are specialists in smart garment technology. The company was founded in 2010 and has developed innovative textile sensors, electronics and firmware capable of detecting the body’s biophysical signals delivering actionable insight to users via mobile apps.

Dr John Dickinson and Dr Sam Winter, from SSES, are looking forward to working with Smartlife, and with the soon-to- be appointed postgraduate, who will deliver the project. The two-year project, part-funded by Innovate UK, will enable Smartlife to create innovative wearable technology to identify healthy and pathological respiratory patterns. This unique functionality will grow not only their sports and fitness market share but facilitate expansion into new markets such as the health and wellbeing, medical and military markets.

Martin Ashby, CEO of Smartlife, said “we’re delighted to be working with such a well-respected academic institution and believe that our partnership will allow Smartlife to deliver insight to our customers that is at the cutting edge of current thinking on respiration”.

KTPs are a UK-wide Government programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK academic knowledge base.

Picture: Senior Management team at Smartlife Inc: Mark Pedley, Founder; Clare Simpson, Product Development Director; Martin Ashby, CEO.