Osborne to announce £18m funding

Chancellor George Osborne is to announce £18m of funding for life sciences and a new centre for business when he visits Glasgow later.

Mr Osborne will tell more than 200 political and business leaders at the Commonwealth Games Business Conference that it could help create 30,000 jobs.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson has welcomed the announcement.

"The City Deal will transform the Glasgow City region," he said ahead of Mr Osborne's speech.

"This will mean not only better health for Glaswegians but, crucially, more sustainable, high-value jobs."

Innovation facilities

At the University of Glasgow, Mr Osborne will announce:

• A £16m UK government contribution to a new £64m Stratified Medicine Imaging Centre of Excellence that will provide life science research and innovation facilities at the New South Glasgow Hospitals Campus;

• A £1.2m UK government contribution to a £4m MediCity Scotland facility that will bring together academics, entrepreneurs, clinicians and business support services to bring new healthcare services and medical technology to the market;

• £1.7m in UK government funding for a new £4m Centre for Business Incubation, Development and Recovery in Tontine House in Glasgow's Merchant City.

Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney will also address the conference in Glasgow

The remaining funding for the projects will be provided by local partners in Glasgow, including the Scottish government, Scottish Funding Council, Glasgow City Council, the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde.

"The Imaging Centre of Excellence will put Glasgow at the forefront of cutting edge medical research," said Mr Matheson.

"It is the best example of partnership between local and central government."

The two-day conference, jointly organised by the Scottish and UK governments and Scottish Enterprise, being held on the eve of the Commonwealth Games, will also be attended by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

City Deal

It will be chaired by BBC broadcaster John Humphrys and will also feature speeches by Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney.

Mr Osborne's announcement is part of the Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal, announced last year, which gives the city greater responsibility to stimulate and support economic growth in the area and to which the Scottish and UK governments will each invest £500m.

Mr Osborne is expected to say of the Stratified Medicine Imaging Centre of Excellence: "This is a hugely exciting new technology that has the potential to improve radically treatments for chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes and dementia - with treatments tailored to the patient's DNA.

"It's a major investment in Glasgow's growing life sciences industry - which will keep them at the cutting edge in this global race. "

Of the MediCity Scotland campus on the outskirts of Glasgow, he will say: "We're backing them today with this new space where academics, entrepreneurs and clinicians will come together to develop new technologies and new businesses."

Trade links

Meanwhile, the "new business incubator in the heart of Glasgow's historic Merchant City will "house up to 125 businesses over the first five years - providing them with the very best facilities and mentoring so they can thrive".

"These initiatives - taken together with the infrastructure fund - have the potential to create almost 30,000 jobs in the area," Mr Osborne will claim.

The conference in Glasgow is aimed at forging trade links across the Commonwealth.

The event, which will be streamed live on the Scottish Enterprise website, will focus on issues and opportunities common to all countries, such as:

• employment and skills
• infrastructure development
• improving financial services for business
• the development of smart cities of the future

Scottish exports to Commonwealth countries outside the UK are worth about £2bn a year and organisers of the conference hope laying the groundwork for more long-term commercial partnerships can be a key legacy of the Glasgow 2014 Games.

Osborne to announce £18m funding

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