“EXCITING” plans for the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus near Penrhyncoch include the creation of 45 new jobs.

Residents were invited to an AIEC community consultation event at Penrhyncoch Village Hall all last Tuesday, where Aberystwyth University representatives and planning consultants displayed plans ahead of their submission to the council.

Should the plans be approved, the AIEC would be located on land to the left-hand side as you approach the IBERS Gogerddan campus travelling from the direction of the crossroads, immediately after the left turning towards Bow Street.

Project director Huw Watkins told residents that the AIEC, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, through the Welsh Government; the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and by Aberystwyth University, was an “exciting investment” for the area.

“This is an exciting investment that we are contemplating here in Gogerddan,” Mr Watkins told residents.

“The rationale is that companies must invest to grow.

“So it is about understanding how companies can invest, and they are increasingly looking at working with universities. It is about facilitating that collaboration.”

Mr Watkins said there were seven “deliverables”, which include £23m of additional research income for the university between 2019 and 2023, the creation of 45 “high value” jobs, and the attraction of bioscience companies to Aberystwyth.

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