A NEW multi-million pound research centre in Londonderry will create more than 20 high quality jobs.
The Northern Ireland Centre for Stratified Medicine is based at the Uni-versity of Ulster and is a collaboration between the university’s Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, C-TRIC (the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre) and the Western Health and Social Care Trust.
The £11.5m facility will focus on per-sonalised medicine approaches to managing chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone disorders, mental health, dementia and cancer.
The 22 high end jobs will include 15 lecturers in Stratified Medicine who will be in post by the end of this year.
Speaking at the opening of the cen-tre Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said: “This project will help to establish Northern Ireland as a leader in personalised medicine, where discoveries are moved rapidly to commercial and clinical use. This both enhances health and supports economic regeneration.
“Health and Life Sciences is one of the fastest growing sectors in Northern Ireland and one that will play an increasingly important part in helping to strengthen our economy.
“This new centre will speed up com-mercialisation of intellectual property from our universities, positioning the economy to compete strongly in this high value sector.”
Meanwhile, an employment law consultant is launching a new service to up skill local businesses and save them thousands of pounds.
Alana Jones, the businesswoman be-hind Workplace Solutions, believes her consultancy will help firms resolve workplace grievances before they start costing employers money.
Alana said: “Disputes within organ-isations are costing Northern Ireland businesses thousands of pounds each year in tribunals. This can be a tough experience for both employers and employees, regardless of the outcome.
“Workplace Solutions is focused on enabling organisations and individuals to effectively address disputes in house and to embed good working practices.
“My role will be to conduct investigations on disciplinary and grievances issues, provide training and act as a mediation service resolving workplace disputes which can be very effective at ‘nipping in the bud’ issues which have the potential to destroy working relations or lead to litigation.
“In my previous role as a solicitor spe-cialising in employment law, I repre-sented clients at tribunal on a daily basis, meaning that I know the pitfalls and how best to avoid them and I am acutely aware of the benefits of resolving disputes as early as possible.”
One such organisation which has en-listed the services of Workplace Solu-tions is Antrim-based Legal Island, organisers of human resources and employment law conferences, seminars and training in Northern Ireland.
Barry Phillips, CEO of Legal Island, explained that the new service was something which more businesses in Northern Ireland could benefit from.
He said: “It makes total business sense for employers to catch workplace disputes as early as possible. As soon as they snowball out of control they become timing consuming and very expensive.”