A £6.6M innovation hub will help create and support hundreds of North-East jobs, bosses have said.

Darlington’s Business Central will open next month, offering space for up to 60 companies.

It will focus on nurturing established and start-up companies, providing office space and practical help, with specific focus on the digital, biologics and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Operated by North-East Business Innovation Centre (BIC), the project has been backed with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the Homes and Communities Agency.

Officials previously revealed they hoped it will support the creation of at least 25 new businesses and more than 300 new jobs over the next 15 years.

Victoria Thompson, the organisation’s head of communications, told The Northern Echo it was committed to delivering an economic boost to Darlington.

She said: “We are all about innovation.

“But this is not about shuffling the pack; we want to make sure the businesses that are coming here will enhance the area and are not just moving from one place to another.

“We can tap into different things, and have support services and business mentoring, which are ideal for companies that are established or are start-ups.

“We will open towards the end of next month, and already have offices that are let.”

BIC will work with Tedco Business Support to offer advice and guidance, mirroring existing facilities it has on the banks of Sunderland’s River Wear.

However, Ms Thompson said the organisation was delighted to be in Darlington.

She added: “It is vital that we help different sectors, and the reaction since we announced we were coming to Darlington has been fantastic.

“People have been asking us why we haven’t come here sooner, which is great.”

Ms Thompson added BIC has helped to create more than 7,000 jobs, with its Sunderland site home to in excess of 140 businesses.

It worked with Darlington Borough Council on the development, which is in the town’s Central Park Enterprise Zone, off Yarm Road, and is based next to the new Centre for Process Innovation’s £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre.

That building will also open later this year, to help companies research and develop potentially life-saving cures and vaccines, and will be followed by the National Horizons Centre (NHC).

A partnership between Teesside University, CPI, Darlington College, Darlington Borough Council and the town’s Centre for Subsea Technology Awareness Training and Education, NHC will work on developing industries, including biologics, industrial biotechnology, subsea engineering and digital, ensuring they have skilled staff and facilities to test breakthrough innovations.

Bill Dixon, Darlington Borough Council leader, said Business Central was further proof of the town’s status as a significant business hub.

He added: “Central Park is all about bringing investment and jobs to Darlington, and Business Central is an important part of that.

“With the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre already on site and the NHC on its way, Central Park will become a centre for expertise in industrial biotechnology, subsea engineering and digital manufacturing and design.

“Business Central provides the perfect place for the small and medium-sized companies, which feed these industries to flourish.”

An open day to highlight the BIC development was held on the same day Department for Education (DfE) offices were officially opened in Darlington town centre.

Building work on that started in December 2013, after The Northern Echo launched a campaign to help save hundreds of DfE jobs, which had been based at the town's Mowden Hall, but had been earmarked to be switched to Newcastle under changes.

However, Darlington Borough Council agreed a deal with the Government to build the office block at the back of the town hall.