Jan Hutt, the Welsh Assembly Government’s Finance Minister, recently visited the site of Swansea University’s new Bay Campus to top out the Engineering Central building, which will be part of the College of Engineering and home to the Innovation Hub.

The Hub will provide world-class research facilities and enable the university to significantly increase its ability to access research council grants and other sources of funding. It will also provide an ‘open innovation’ environment for industry to collaborate and engage with academic expertise to help develop new manufacturing products and processes.

The £450 million Bay Campus development, which will welcome its first students in September 2015, has received £50 million from the Welsh Assembly Government, of which £35 million came from the European Regional Development Fund.

Ms Hutt said: “Investing in key infrastructure projects such as this one is vital to the Welsh economy. This building will provide new opportunities for students and world-class research facilities.”

Professor Richard Davies, vice-chancellor of Swansea University, said: “Our new Bay Campus has been recognised as one of Europe’s leading ‘knowledge economy’ projects. We have been very successful in gaining funding from the Government and the European Investment Bank, as well as from industry.”