BUDGET 2011: Daresbury campus awarded expansion grant

The Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus in Cheshire will receive £10m out of £100m of additional funding for science investments projects announced by George Osborne.

In October 2010, developer Langtree was selected by Halton Council, North West Development Agency and the Science & Technology Facilities Council to deliver 1m sq ft at Daresbury over the next 30 years.

The Science & Technology Facilities Council said the £10m for Daresbury will enable it to make new capital investments in technologies and testing for next-generation science-driven accelerators, advanced ultra-sensitive security scanning techniques, and new medical accelerator developments. Much of this work will be in collaboration with industry. The funding will also enable design changes to be made to EMMA, a prototype accelerator, to make it suitable for hospital-based proton and other therapies.

Langtree applied for £8m from the Regional Growth Fund earlier this year to fund a road bridge over the Bridgwater Canal to open up 50 acres of expansion land.

Langtree is on site with a speculative 36,000 sq ft office and laboratory building, Vanguard House, which is due to be completed at the end of March.