THE North-East will be offered the chance to lead Britain's offshore wind energy revolution today - as the home of a new £25m cutting-edge research base.

Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce a contest to host an elite 'Technology and Innovation Centre' (TIC), to get bold ideas from "the drawing board to the market place".

The centre will be a place where companies can tap into expertise, equipment and finance, to develop their own in-house research and development.

Around eight will be set up around the country - one already exists in advanced manufacturing, based in Rotherham - linked to first-class research at nearby universities.

The idea is to create a "critical mass" for innovation in a specific technology where there is both a potentially large global market - and a significant domestic capability.

Mr Cable will not say which part of the country is likely to host the offshore renewable energy TIC, when he speaks in Liverpool today, but this region is certain to be a frontrunner.

For example, the New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec), in Blyth, Northumberland, is already viewed as a leader in developing low-carbon energy sources.

Today, Mr Cable is expected to say: "Offshore renewables are essential to meeting our energy targets.

"We need to reduce costs as much as possible for the sake of consumers - and we need to harness technological innovation in the UK to boost our economy.

"The centre will concentrate on technologies for offshore wind, wave and tidal power - both on transferring knowledge from the established offshore engineering industry and on the development of marine and tidal systems, turbines and blades."

The offshore renewables TIC is the third announced, with a contest for the second - focusing on stem cell therapies - due to close next month.

The move comes in the same week as Mr Cable confirmed plans for a 'Green Investment Bank', to make its first investments from April next year - which ministers are hailing as a "world first".