THE Government announced that a new Science Enterprise Centre is to be based at Durham University.

The centre is one of four, including Oxford, Ulster and Warwick, which were announced yesterday.

The centres, part of the Science Enterprise Challenge, aim to develop business expertise in science and transfer knowledge from the science lab to the market place.

A funding package of £4.5m is being made available by the Government to the four centres.

The Durham University centre will be in collaboration with the universities of Newcastle, Northumbria at Newcastle, Sunderland and Teesside.