£2m Wolfson award for CIR

The fundraising campaign spearheaded by Professors Sir Philip Cohen and Michael Ferguson and Hollywood actor Brian Cox to raise the final £4m towards the completion of the new £17.5m Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Research (CIR) received an incredible boost recently, with the announcement of a £2m grant award from the Wolfson Foundation.

The Wolfson Foundation award came just two weeks after the announcement of another award of £1m from the European Regional Development Fund as a contribution towards the costs of fitting out two floors designated for applied research in the CIR.

Professor Sir Philip Cohen, Director of Research at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, said, "I am truly indebted to the Wolfson Foundation for their generosity and belief in the importance of the research carried out here in Dundee. This award recognises the world-class strength of bio-science research in Dundee and the importance of the expansion of our teams in two areas of research that have the potential to impact millions of lives worldwide".

Joan Concannon, Director of External Relations, said, "The Wolfson Foundation has been a wonderful supporter of the University over the years and we are particularly grateful for their generosity towards this important project. All told our campaign has now raised more than £2.5m from trusts and foundations, incredible local support and philanthropic donations. We will be concentrating our efforts to raise the final £1.5m required to complete the new facility, scheduled to open in the summer of 2005".