COUNCILLORS are expected to approve a £1.5 million grant towards a centre that will be at the forefront of the worldwide fight against illness and disease.

The £20m project at the new showpiece South Glasgow Hospital will create hundreds of jobs and boost the city's reputation as a centre for medical research.

Housed in the hospital's teaching and learning facility, the centre will help strengthen commercial partnerships between local life-sciences companies, universities and the NHS.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson said: "The council's investment will show dividends in terms of creating jobs, business, training and inward investment, and help grow and support the people and companies in this important field of medical research."

The new unit, called the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre, could boost the city's economy by up to £68m in five years, with about 20% going to local small and medium-sized companies, according to independent forecasts.

Professor Anna Dominiczak, of Glasgow University, a partner in the new centre, said: "We are excited at the prospects that the innovation centre and adjacent incubator space will offer, not just in stratified medicine but in contributing to jobs and the local economy."

When the £840m South Glasgow Hospital opens in 2015, it will be one of the largest in Europe.