Labour to back national life sciences facility

BYLINE: Tim Pauling

First Minister Jack McConnell pledged to back a National Life Sciences Institute for Scotland while in Dundee on a campaign visit to the city yesterday.

The institute would build on Dundee's excellence in the field and would be the only institute of its kind in Scotland.

Life sciences at Dundee University have played a key role in making the city the hub of the biotechnology industry in Scotland. Several of Scotland's most significant biotechnology companies are based in Dundee.

Scientists at the university published all of Scotland's seven most-quoted research papers in life sciences in the past 10 years, and the university is ranked as the most influential university in the field in Europe, ahead of Oxford and Cambridge.

There are currently three life sciences research institutes in the UK - set up and funded by the Medical Research Council - all in the south of England.

Labour believes Scotland should have an equivalent centre to attract world-class, entrepreneurial scientists.

Labour says that a Scottish institute for life sciences would deliver world-class scientific research and generate the intellectual property on which Scotland's biotechnology industry ultimately depends.

The new institute is included in Labour's plans to promote science, including new regional centres of excellence and a national science outreach scheme.

Mr McConnell made his announcement on a visit to Dundee University's College of Life Sciences when he said education was central to a successful strategy for Scotland's future - not separation.

"Dundee is now home to the largest bioscience cluster outside of the south-east of England and it is vital that Dundee University continues to collaborate nationally and internationally with other higher education institutions and with industries in Scotland and around the world," he said.