Trains, chocolate, tourism, insurance, shops. If you asked a resident to draw up a list of the main sources of employment in York, these would probably all feature prominently.

But now there's a new player on the field, and its importance is set to grow dramatically over the next few years - science.

White-coated work for hundreds and hundreds of people - and a staggering 1,600 further jobs are set to be created over the next four years.

So far, the jobs have mainly been in the bioscience field, with York becoming a centre of bioscience excellence for the UK. Several hundred jobs have come to the Ministry of Agriculture's new Central Science Laboratory at Sand Hutton, and another 200 to Smith & Nephew's Group Research Centre near York

University, where new treatments for ulcers and wounds have been developed, along with new sticking plasters that won't hurt when they are pulled off. The university itself has played a major role in the bioscience revolution, and more scientific work has come at Nestle Rowntree's Research and Development Centre, where experts have been creating new confectionery for tomorrow. Numerous other scientific businesses have been launched across the city. Over the past year, BSC Filters have expanded from nine to 36 staff and it is now looking to grow even more in future.

The new £630,000 initiative launched today by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury seeks to take York's science revolution into two new inter-related fields - information and communication technology (ICT) and heritage and arts technology.

One key ICT business already well-established is Infocom, which has grown by more than 100 per cent every year since it was set up in 1995 and now employs more than 45 people - most of whom are York graduates. The firm will be moving into a new £1.7 million headquarters on York Science Park in the near future.

The importance of science and technology in the heritage industry might surprise some people.

But Dr Harold Mytum, head of the archaeology department at York University, spoke of numerous examples. "We use ground radar to minimise the need for excavations and sophisticated computer technology to search for archaeological data," he said.

see NEWS 'Science centre to create 1,600 jobs'

see COMMENT 'Bold bid to be a science city'

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