University of Warwick £100m car centre 'will secure jobs'

A £100m car research centre at the University of Warwick "will help secure" up to 1,000 jobs, the institution's vice chancellor has said.

The National Automotive Innovation Campus will be part-funded by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which has pledged a £50m investment.

The centre will aim to develop new vehicle technology to reduce the UK's dependency on fossil fuels.

Work on the Kirby Corner Road site in Coventry will begin in 2014.

A university spokesman said that around 500 existing JLR and university technical staff would be based in the centre when it opened in 2016.

He said it would also house up to 500 new technologists and engineers, many of which would be sourced from the centre's own training schemes.

Dr Nigel Thrift said the campus would make "a significant difference to the automotive industry and help secure hundreds of jobs in our region".

JLR's director of research and technology Dr Wolfgang Hepple added that it would "become a centre of training and skills" and would "play a key role in nurturing the next generation of engineers and technologists".