A £320m boost for Britain's science research will help to pay for a new chemistry laboratory at Oxford University.

The Government says it is giving the money to 27 universities in an effort to tackle years of underfunding and to help the UK stay at the forefront of science. The Wellcome Trust medical research charity has put up 40 per cent of the money.

The new chemistry laboratory will be built in South Parks Road, opposite the historic Dyson Perrins Laboratory, and will open in 2002.

The chemistry department is now housed in five separate buildings.

Prof Graham Richards, Professor of Chemistry, said: "We are delighted to have been successful in our bid to the Joint Infrastructure Fund, which was fundamental to our plans for a new building which will bring together all the disciplines within the department.

"Oxford has the largest chemistry department in the UK, with more than 50 active research groups, and many individuals who are leaders in their fields.

"The new laboratory will allow them to use state-of-the-art methodology and develop collaborative research programmes."

Another Oxford project benefiting from the Joint Infrastructure Fund is the Ancient Biomolecules Centre, which will be able to trace genes in plants and animals which died thousands of years ago.

Dr Alan Cooper, of Balliol College, will lead a team from the departments of zoology and bioanthropology as well as the University Museum.

The positive air-pressure laboratories will provide the UK with a research centre into ancient DNA. Another award will pay for a new centre for quantum information processing, using computers to probe quantum physics.

Story date: Monday 13 December

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