A UNIVERSITY has been given £500,000 to help create an International Photography Research Centre.

The European Culture 2000 funding is to support the Changing Faces project, which forms the basis of the research centre at the University of Sunderland.

The university's award was one of only two grants given from 187 applications across Europe. It will allow Sunderland to co-ordinate photographic commissions across 15 countries and four continents.

Some of the world's leading photographers are being attracted to Changing Faces, which is backed by the Arts Council England.

The project will create photographic work through commissions that will explore cultural diversity, mainly in Europe, but also the world.

The programme will include 18 international photography commissions and three international conferences, as well as exhibitions in Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.

Project manager Laurie Short said: "This project puts Sunderland at the centre of international photographic research on cultural diversity."

Andrew Dixon, the executive director of the North-East branch of the Arts Council, said: "Changing Faces is a major coup for both Sunderland and the region, and will certainly raise awareness of the North-East on an international platform."

The Changing Faces programme will start with an international conference in Sunderland in September next year, which will coincide with an exhibition of the project at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, in Sunderland.

The research centre will build on the growing reputation of the university's photography department.

Over the past few years, the department has awarded commissions to some of Europe's leading photographers, including Gerhard Stromberg, Jem Southam and Andrew Cross. One of the university's visiting professors, Paul Wombell, is the director of The Photographers' Gallery, the UK's leading contemporary photography gallery.