The leading centre in the United Kingdom for research into fire safety is to be built in Northern Ireland, the government has announced.

A multi-million pound award from the joint infrastructure fund will provide for a state-of-the-art building devoted to fire safety at the University of Ulster campus at Jordanstown outside Belfast.

The fund is a partnership established by the government and the Wellcome Trust.

The university said the centre would allow for a variety of projects not possible in the current premises of its fire safety engineering facility.

These will include "full" and "half scale" fire simulations and a sleep laboratory to monitor how people respond to late night fires in the home.

'Able to simulate fires

The director of fire research at the university, Professor Jim Shields, said the unit would initially look at how fires developed and the manner in which people reacted to them.

"We already have an international reputation for our work in this area but the new facility will allow us to simulate fires even more accurately than at present," he said.

"For the first time we will be able to simulate fires by computer and have actual 'controlled' fires in the same area.

"It represents a major advance in fire study, particularly predicating how they start in the first place, how people react to them and the best way of evacuating buildings."

The size of the award, known to be the biggest ever made by the fund in Northern Ireland, has not yet been made public.

The project is one of 28 at universities across the UK which will receive funding totalling �130m - ranging from �500,000 to �19m - announced by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury on Tuesday.

The infrastructure fund was established in 1998 with the commitment of �300m each by the government and the Wellcome Trust with the aim of improving scientific research facilities in UK universities.

It was later augmented by a �150m contribution from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Northern Ireland minister Adam Ingram welcomed the award, saying top quality research in the province's universities was essential to the prosperity of Northern Ireland.

"The winning of this award is not only a major boost for the research capabilities of the University of Ulster, but it is a clear signal that the quality of the research being undertaken in our universities is second to none," he said.