A MULTI-MILLION pound new teaching and research building at a Hampshire university could create dozens of new jobs.

Proposals for the University of Southampton’s £36m new engineering building will go before council planning chiefs tonight.

If approved, the new building on the Boldrewood Campus would create cutting-edge engineering facilities that could lead to major advances in areas such as rail transport and infrastructure.

As well as providing a new home for cutting edge research in the city, the plans would create dozens of new jobs, including construction posts and new roles created as a result of collaborations with local businesses.

Some of the funding for the project will come from £36m handed out to the university by the Government as part of a nationwide, £138m plan to boost research in infrastructure research facilities across the UK.

The plans for the proposed four-storey 5,620 sq m new block replace previous proposals for two separate buildings, which had previously been granted outline planning permission.

It would contain a new National Infrastructure Laboratory which would accommodate state-of-the-art new equipment for work on improving large structures and their components, which would then lead to improvements in road infrastructure, rail and the maritime sector.

Work on rail transport will be a key focus, with university experts set to see how it can adapt to the effects of climate change and more intensive use, as well as designing and building a more cost-effective infrastructure.

If planning permission is granted work could begin on site almost immediately and may open in 2017.

Professor William Powrie, pictured below, the Dean of the university’s Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, said: “The building will replace and enhance facilities in vital infrastructure research and teaching currently based on the university’s nearby Highfield Campus.

Daily Echo:

“It will enable us to develop our world-leading research and enterprise activities in Engineering and the Environment as part of the Boldrewood Innovation Campus. which is also home to Lloyd’s Register’s Global Technology Centre and other major facilities including a state of the art towing tank and other advanced fluid dynamics experimental facilities.

“The addition of the new building will make this a flagship campus for the university and for the region in terms of its capacity to make major advances at national and international levels in engineering projects aligned to areas of infrastructure and rail transport – a major area of expertise and specialism for Southampton.

“We expect the expanded range of activity that the new facilities will enable will lead to new jobs, both directly and in due course by businesses becoming established or relocated to the area to exploit the synergies offered.”

Councillors are being recommended to approve the proposals.