Pirelli's Pounds 5m lifeline

Pirelli, the Italian telecommunications giant, has come to the rescue of optical electronics research at Southampton University with Pounds 5 million invested over five years.

Backing for the world famous optoelectronic research centre will help avert a cash crisis and help stem the brain drain to the United States. A quarter of researchers left for US jobs last year.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council set up the centre in 1989 and agreed to ring-fence it for ten years.

David Payne, centre director, said the end of this funding next year threatened research. "You cannot run a world-class research group on short-term funding. Backing for blue-skies research is the responsibility of government and the EPSRC should be provided with funds for this. While we will be able to make case-by-case bids for grants, these are not a substitute for such funding."

A council spokesman said it was time the centre took "its chances in open competition for funding".

Pirelli, which has an optical fibre factory in Southampton, is funding research into getting more data along optical fibres.