Prof Dianna Bowles, Prof Ron Cooke and Prof Alastair Fitter with a model of the new development

A multi-million pound award for the University of York announced today will mean new jobs and investment for the city.

The university's biology department, already rated one of the best in the country, is to benefit from new buildings, new equipment and a substantial refurbishment, thanks to a successful bid for more than £20 million.

The award will enable the department to revamp its research laboratories on the Heslington campus and will lead to dozens of new jobs.

It will also mean a boost for the university's cutting-edge research into a range of human diseases, from cancer to osteoporosis and in-vitro fertilisation, and new opportunities for teams working on biomedicine, plant science and ecology.

The cash comes from a £700m fund set up to transform scientific research in the UK by the Wellcome Trust, six research councils and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The new and refurbished buildings will cluster around a central technology facility, providing state-of-the-art equipment and facilities at the campus.

And new seminar and lecture rooms for research staff will also form part of the package.

About £8m will be spent on new equipment alone.

"This award provides an exceptional opportunity for the department to keep its internationally-renowned research at the forefront of scientific understanding," said Professor Alastair Fitter, head of the department.

"The award is a testament to the dedication and commitment of all our staff and students."

The bid was led by Professor Dianna Bowles. She said that by awarding the bid, the Government showed it was endorsing the university's vision of developing its research base in biology.

"We now have a really secure foundation for continued success," she said.

"This is the largest single award the university has ever received and it was won against exceptionally stiff competition," said Vice-Chancellor Prof Ron Cooke.

"It is an accolade which reflects the vision and hard work of Alastair Fitter, Dianna Bowles and their team and provides an opportunity for them to sustain and develop the department's world class status.

"It also means that Bioscience York will be seen as one of the leading bioscience centres in Europe and it creates opportunities for wealth and job creation."

Among the research groups set to benefit from the expansion in the biology department is its cancer research team.

Funded in part by Yorkshire Cancer Research, they are carrying out groundbreaking work into cervical and prostate cancer, and on a protein that determines whether cells become cancerous.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.