Medical charity the Wellcome Trust and research councils this week invited universities to bid for equipment, buildings and refurbishment from a Pounds 600 million joint government-trust fund.
The trust's decision to donate Pounds 300 million is a policy departure. It used to insist that large-scale university infrastructure funding was a government responsibility.
Director Michael Dexter said: "We became increasingly aware on visits to institutions that research facilities across the sector were simply not up to scratch to compete on the global stage."
The trend towards multidisciplinary work influenced the decision. "For us to take biomedical sciences forward we must accept that contributions from other sciences and engineering are also important," he added.
Dr Dexter denied that the initiative will be biased towards the needs of biomedicine and biological sciences."The trust has no pet project or hidden agenda it wants to see pursued. Although our remit constricts us to supporting work of benefit to biomedicine, we want the fund to be broad and flexible in its support."
There will be a minimum bid level of Pounds 750,000, though awards may be below this. The deadline for the first round of applications is December 4, with the last call scheduled for March 2001. A fund road show kicks off at University College London on October 9.