A new £5 million research centre that will be at the cutting edge of new technology is to be housed in Coventry.

Marconi and the University of Warwick have unveiled plans to build the new centre on the university campus in a unique partnership between business and research.

The exciting new project will create 200 jobs as the city takes the lead in photonics - a form of transmitting information using light signals instead of wires.

Spokesman for the University of Warwick, Peter Dunn, said:

"This sort of technology is going to be the next big thing - it is, literally, technology at the speed of light.

"It means a lot to Coventry and the university to be on the cutting edge of something that is going to be the future for items like computers and mobile phones.

"There is nowhere else in the UK where a partnership between a university and business is taking place to lead the research in photonics, but we are pleased to be working with a firm which will eventually use this new technology in the market place.

"Elsewhere, universities are conducting their own research and so are businesses. But the University of Warwick and Marconi are working together to make sure we stay ahead."

The new centre will be called the Marconi Photonic Manufacturing Research Centre and will be built at the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the university.