Science Minister Lord Sainsbury has announced where the £700m extra funds made available for science in the comprehensive spending review will be targeted over the next four years.

"The overall allocation is designed to be a balanced package with particular attention to boosting postgraduate and post-doctoral training."

The funding from the Department for Trade and Industry will support biomolecular and biomedical research, physical and environmental sciences, basic engineering and the social sciences.

Lord Sainsbury said "that for far too long we had only been maintaining the high quality research output by running down the infrastructure. Such activity is unsustainable.

"A major thrust of the new programmes to be funded from the science budget are designed to address the problems of crumbling research laboratories and obsolete equipment."

Research councils for biotechnology and biology, engineering and physical science, medical research, natural environment and particle physics and astronomy will all win funds.