A NEW centre designed to urge business to tap into the wealth of knowledge and expertise within the North-East's universities has been established.

The Science Enterprise Centre has been backed by £1.3m funding from the Government's Office of Science and Technology. It will accelerate the application of world-class science and engineering expertise into business developments.

At the same time, it will increase the awareness of the importance of business enterprise amongst students and academics.

"This is tremendous news for the region," said Durham pro-vice-chancellor Professor John Anstee.

"The universities are engaged in a wealth of top-quality research and this centre will help us to make better use of such expertise in terms of business growth and jobs both in the North-East and elsewhere in the UK."

Durham University is leading the project, which includes the four other universities in the area: Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside.

Keith Seacroft, spokesman at the University of Durham, said regional development agency One NorthEast has stressed the need for universities and businesses to work more closely together and has identified this a key objective it its economic strategy.

"This centre will create a new framework that allows us to takes this objective forward at a much faster pace," explained Mr Seacroft.

The centre will foster the commercialisation of science and technology from the high-quality research base at Durham and elsewhere in the North-East. It will promote enterprise and entrepreneurship in university science and engineering.

One NorthEast chief executive, Mike Collier, said the new centre is a key investment.

He said: "The centre will undoubtedly become a local focus for scientific expertise. It will contribute to our objective to place our universities at the heart of the regional economy."