A NEW research and teaching centre at one of the region's leading universities has won £12m backing.

The centre, which will cost £38m in total, will be the flagship of York University's proposed £500m campus extension.

Codenamed Complex X, the centre will pioneer closer collaboration between arts and sciences, reflecting the realignment of fields of study in an increasingly technological age.

It will be the focal point of the first phase of the university's planned campus expansion at Heslington East, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England has now agreed a £12m package towards it.

A planning application for the 70-acre campus extension won local authority backing in March and is now likely to go to a public inquiry.

Complex X will house York's new department of theatre, film and television, while the department of computer sciences and the bulk of its department of electronics will also be relocated there.

Alongside those will be various technological and systems analysis research centres.

Vice-chancellor Professor Brian Cantor said: "Complex X is the academic focal point of the first phase of our expansion plans.

"Our proposals for Complex X are founded on collaboration both between departments and with other local and regional academic institutions. It will create new and exciting intellectual partnerships in teaching and research.

* The campus expansion will increase student numbers by 50 per cent and is likely to create a total of a further 4,500 jobs.