£156m boost for science

5:10pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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Oxfordshire has taken the lion's share of £400m Government investment in the science of the future.

The Harwell campus in south Oxfordshire will get £156.5m to build large world-beating research projects to underpin Britain's hi-tech discoveries.

The largest grant, of £92.5m, will pay for 10 new beamlines at the Diamond Light Synchrotron, a 'supermicroscope' which allows scientists to examine the molecules which contribute to diseases like diabetes, cancer and Aids, as well looking at new materials.

The other projects receiving money are: £25m to complete Isis, the UK's world leading neutron source at Harwell, for research into energy, health and bioscience; and £24m for a new imaging solutions centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

But Prof Susan Cooper, of Oxford University, said particle physics research staff faced losing their jobs after the withdrawal of grants.