The ambitions of the Darwin Centre for Biology and Medicine in Pembrokeshire are taken a step further this week as they invite tenders for a feasibility study under a project part funded by ERDF Objective 1.

Consultants are invited to tender for a two-part study to consider the establishment in Pembrokeshire of a major international sabbatical centre for scientific research and innovation, and public understanding of science. The successful tender will be announced in January.

The aims of the Darwin Centre to develop this project in the county were profiled at their recent two-day marine conference in Pembrokeshire College in September, which saw international speakers join with local experts to discuss the marine environment in terms of education, commercialisation, research and public understanding of science. The timing of the September conference could not have been better with the very welcome news that the Darwin Centre bid for ERDF Objective 1 funding for the feasibility study had been successful.

Darwin Centre activities in Pembrokeshire have so far been spearheaded by the Pembrokeshire Darwin Science Festival, which has staged a range of activities in the county since its inception in 2000.