A MASSIVE injection of money, jobs and technology - all contained in one single scheme - could put the region at the forefront of world science within the next decade.

North Yorkshire is a front-runner to become the home of a huge international project to reveal the deeper secrets of the inner universe, with potential benefits for a vast array of industries.

The £1bn European Spallation Source (ESS) would be home to the biggest and most powerful "neutron scattering" facility on the planet - the equivalent, in its field, of the Hubble telescope.

It would allow scientists to look inside the building blocks of life, using neutrons to peer inside everyday materials and unlock complex information.

The White Rose Consortium, comprising the universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield, with the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, has submitted an outline planning application for a 540-acre site at Burn airfield, near Selby.

Costing £1bn to build and £90m a year to run, it would employ about 2,000 during the building stage and about 1,000 full-time scientists, technicians, engineers and support staff when operating.

Thousands more scientists would visit to use the facility each year and it is envisaged that high-tech companies would gravitate to the area.

The consortium is competing against rival bids from Scandinavia, Germany and Hungary and believes it is among the leaders, having spent about £10m so far on the project.

Demonstrating the level of commitment, Yorkshire Forward has already bought the land, which will be used for other scientific research purposes should the ESS bid fail.

The consortium's scientific advisor, Professor Bob Cywinski, said: "The building of the ESS in Yorkshire would create the world's largest and most advanced science facility for the investigation of essential materials, such as medicines, proteins, ceramics and metals, that we rely on in our everyday lives, in unprecedented detail."

One of the main components of the site would be a kilometre-long linear accelerator, with a compressor ring all housed partially underground.

Scientists stress the ESS would not be a nuclear facility, although mercury used in the process would become radioactive over its operational life. However it would be contained in concrete casings designed to withstand the impact of a major earthquake.

A final decision on the preferred site is expected by 2008 and construction would then take eight to ten years.