Scientists land £2.5m grant for research (From Gazette & Herald)

Scientists land £2.5m grant for research

SCIENTISTS at Sand Hutton will have a chance to make innovative ideas a reality after their laboratory won the top grant in a national funding scheme.

The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) is the leader of a group of public sector research institutes which has won a £2.5million grant from the Government.

The cash is part of £25million given by the Department for Trade and Industry to fund new science projects across the country.

The department gave awards to 29 different schemes - but the biggest amount of cash was won by the CSL-led consortium.

The cash will be paid into the Rainbow Seed Fund, a pot of money worth millions which finances scientific innovations.

The Government's award could be used to develop more than 100 possible ideas in areas including animal vaccines, disease identification and food safety.

Dr Robert Bolton, CSL's commercial director, said the DTI's funding was a "major step forwards".

"This funding will greatly increase the development opportunities available to our consortium members, and enable our laboratories to gain maximum benefit from our public sector research," he said.

The other institutes in the consortium are the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the Health Protection Agency, the Scottish Crop Research Institute, the Macauley Land Use Research Institute and the National Physical Laboratory.

The CSL has also been awarded two more grants from the Government totalling more than £1.3million.

Updated: 09:54 Wednesday, February 01, 2006