The £5million Aurora Innovation Centre will tackle the world's greatest challenges from Cambridge

Science minister Jo Johnson opened the British Antarctic Survey's newest venture.

The new Aurora Innovation Centre at British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge was officially opened on Friday (July 21) by universities and science minister Jo Johnson.

The centre will support cross-discipline research to tackle environmental challenges and increase the real-world benefit of polar research.

It has been funded by £5million provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) from the UK science budget, along with a £300,000 contribution from Cambridge University.

The centre offers a collaboration space, exhibition area and state-of-the-art conference and meeting facilities.

Mr Johnson said: “This new innovation centre will bring together great minds from a variety of disciplines to lead the international effort to tackle environmental change and demonstrate the value of research collaboration in solving some of the greatest challenges of our time.”

The minister also confirmed a funding contribution of £18million towards the cost of modernising the BAS’s Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula.