4 October 2005

University to Welcome European Delegation

PHOTOCALL: 2.15 PM, Thursday October 6th, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (adjacent to Wellcome Trust Biocentre)

Members of the European Parliament industry, research and energy committee will view some of the world-class research facilities at the University of Dundee this week at their special request.

The committee is visiting leading Scottish research institutions this week including the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews, Scottish Crop Research Institute, the Roslin Institute and a renewable energy project in Islay. Dundee is the most cited in Europe for biosciences and has been named by an international poll of scientists as the best place to work outside of North America.

When they visit the University of Dundee on Thursday the committee will be welcomed into the new £21 million Centre for Interdisciplinary Research at the Faculty of Life Sciences by Professor Pete Downes, Dean of the Faculty. There they will meet some of the 10 most recently recruited principal investigators - six of whom have come to Dundee from the USA, in what has been termed "a reverse brain drain".

The committee will also be given a presentation by Professor Eric Wright, Research Dean from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, and will also be given a guided tour of the CIR and Wellcome Trust Biocentre.

The recently-completed Centre for Interdisciplinary Research is a state-of-the-art building housing 250 scientists and staff, expanding the University’s research in diabetes and tropical diseases - the two epidemics facing the developed and developing world.

The University has a worldwide reputation as a centre of excellence in life sciences, developing valuable research in areas such as cancer, diabetes and tropical diseases.

For more information contact:

Roddy Isles,
Head of Press
Tel: 01382 344910 (out of hours: 07968298585),
Email: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk