NEARLY 40 green research organisations, chosen to test the feasibility of their inventions at a new facility, could be creating industries and jobs within two years.

The organisations, some involved in consortiums between the private sector and universities, will test 19 projects at the new £12m Industrial Biotechnology (IB) demonstrator facility at the Wilton site, near Redcar, east Cleveland.

The projects are aimed at developing low carbon technology, such as finding alternatives to fossil fuels for use in everyday products or bio-based health products.

Each of the projects has won Government funding in a £2.5m competition, the results of which were announced yesterday.

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB), which ran the competition, anticipated that the feasibility projects could lead to commercial scale activities within two years.

The facility, which is due to be fully operational by the end of this year, will give small companies access to expertise and equipment they would otherwise struggle to afford to test their groundbreaking science.

Merlin Goldman, the TSB’s lead technologist for biosciences, said: “Many small companies working in this sector have great ideas, but lack the funds and facilities to enable them to carry out the important development and demonstration feasibility work required.”

Michael Thompson, chief executive of Newcastle-based Graphite Resources Ltd, which is leading one of the 19 projects chosen yesterday, said: “The facility at Wilton is absolutely fantastic. We should be proud of it and we are delighted to be working with them.”

The IB facility will add to the capabilities of the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and enlarge the IB testing done at the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility (NIBF), both at Wilton, and will put Teesside at the forefront of the sector, which could be worth £25bn by 2025.

Nigel Perry, chief executive of the CPI, said: “We are fully expecting and bringing in companies other than these 19 projects.”

Business Minister Ian Lucas, who visited the facility yesterday, said: “I am delighted a national innovation centre is opening here on Teesside.

“This is all about taking forward the tremendous scientific innovation in the UK and building jobs in industry out of that.

“It is something we haven’t done well in the UK in the past. What these centres are about is building that capability so we don’t have jobs going abroad. People have the capability to do it here.”

Alan Clarke, chief executive of One North East, which has earmarked £1.5m to help companies in the region access the facilities, believed having a centre of excellence in the region would bring national and international interest.

He said: “This major new national facility will act as an anchor for new investment into the Tess Valley process sector and will help the UK become a world-class home for industrial biotechnology.”