Hundreds of millions of pounds have been given to Swindon research councils to pioneer work in a variety of fields, including climate change and genomics.

The five councils, all based at Polaris House, North Star, were granted a total of £249 million by the Government to work on projects over the next three years.

The only science research council in Britain based outside Swindon, London's Medical Research Council, was also given £89 million.

Much of the work which each council commissions from universities and industry overlaps. For example, all six will have some contribution to genomics, the research into genes.

The largest of the councils, The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, was given a total of £112 million, which will be used to co-ordinate the work of all the councils and develop technologies to improve understanding of their work.

The Natural Environment Research Council pocketed £39 million, which will go towards investigating the current change in climate in North West Europe and to other projects, including sustainable energy sources.

The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council received £26 million, to be spent on creating a virtual observatory and on a particle smashing experiment aimed at improving knowledge of the origins of the universe.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council was given £42 million, to be mostly spent on genomics research and developing new computer models.

Finally, the Economic and Social Research Council received £29.7 million to focus on the social implications of genomics research.

The money promised yesterday is on top of budgets already agreed for each of the councils over the next three years, which now total more than £1 billion.

The councils do not undertake the research themselves, but manage the budgets by commissioning scientists at universities and companies across the country to tackle certain projects.