A SPANKING new multi-million pound centre of excellence for research has been officially opened in Lancaster.

Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, is pictured (left) as she cut the ribbon at Infolab 21 at Lancaster University.

The North West Regional Development Agency has given £10 million to the project which aims to promote and accelerate technology transfer between ICT research at the University and both local and international business.

University vice-chancellor Prof Paul Wellings (also pictured) says: "InfoLab21 will enable industry to obtain competitive advantage from the research, networking and links with companies of the university."