New enterprise campus in Aberystwyth

The centre will allow research into food, nutrition and energy security

Aberystwyth University is to build a new £40m innovation and enterprise centre, it has confirmed.

The centre will allow research into food, nutrition and energy security, renewable energies and biotechnologies.

The university has had a £20m European Union investment confirmed by the Welsh government, allowing the project to go ahead.

The campus will be built next to the IBERS institute on its current Gogerddan site.

It aims to attract further research funding so companies and researchers can carry out collaborative research projects to generate new products, services and spin-out companies in fields such as sustainable food, health and biotechnologies.

Jane Hutt and Prof April McMahon look at the plans

Professor April McMahon, the university's vice-chancellor, said the Welsh government's finance minister Jane Hutt would visit on Monday to announce the £20m funding from Europe.

The building is expected to open in 2018, and Prof McMahon said it would support around 108 jobs once it was fully operational.

"It feels a bit like Christmas came early," she told BBC Radio Wales.

The university has had to respond to student concerns over standards after it slipped quite significantly down the university ranking tables from 49th in 2011 to 88th.

The campus will be built next to the IBERS research and education centre