Wellcome bid for dome

The Wellcome Trust, Britain's largest biomedical research charity, is said to be in talks with the UK Government over a £300 million bid to buy the ill-fated millennium dome at Greenwich. It is thought that the charity plans to turn the dome into a medical research park, complete with laboratories equipped for research into combating disease. A government spokesman said that whoever eventually does purchase the dome site would be expected to keep it for 15 years.

Although the Trust has yet to confirm the report, it is thought that its development plans for the dome would also include exhibition areas where the public would have access to displays detailing the work of the Trust.

At present, the Trust funds approximately 20 per cent of medical research in the UK and it is committed to contributing another three billion pounds over the next five years. The government is reported to be taking the bid 'extremely seriously'.