A new £50 million digital research centre at Warwick University is set to create 500 new jobs, it was revealed yesterday.
And Lord Bhattacharyya, head of Warwick Manufacturing Group, who is behind the project, promised it would be a "huge leap forward" for the West Midlands economy.
He hopes work can start in the next eight weeks with the building up and running later this year.
It would be his "swansong" gift to the region, pledged Lord Bhattacharyya, a longstanding Government adviser.
Speaking from Singapore, where WMG is establishing research links, he said the project would be a state-ofthe-art development designed to be at the cutting edge of the digital revolution.
"There is no point in a tuppenny ha'penny scheme," said Lord Bhattacharyya. "Either we do it well or we don't do it at all.
"This will focus on the whole approach to the digital technologies of the future. It will be one of the biggest leaps forward for the West Midlands and will give the region a real buzz."
He said it was all very well supplying first and second tier suppliers, but the West Midlands had to aspire to do better.
"We have to break out of that and get into the new age. The aim is to build something that is the top in Europe."
The blueprint will be WMG's famous automotive centre.
But WMG now advises a far wider spectrum of business and public bodies including the National Health Service and banks, Barclays and RBS.
The digital centre would be multi-disciplinary, pulling in anyone from whatever sector whose work could be advanced by the new technologies.
WMG is in the process of agreeing deals with industry giants such as Dassault, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
The centre would seek to develop new products and software while also providing demonstrator units from which industry could benefit.
And Lord Bhattacharyya particularly wants to enthuse the young.
Citing how the computer games industry had developed primarily as a result of "the fertile imagination" of young people, he said: "The centre will bring them in and give them support.
"Not everything will succeed, but even their failures will make them learn a lot about digital technology."
Lord Bhattacharyya said the building alone would cost £25 million and would be fitted out with the most up-to-date equipment.
Saying it was in the final stages of the planning process, he went on: "By the end of this year it will be ready. We hope to make a start on the building in the next eight weeks." He added: "This will be my swansong."
Lord Bhattacharyya said digital technology was behind the vast majority of today's advances including improvements in productivity and competitiveness. Be it the biological sciences, chemistry, the material sciences or medicine, it all "revolved around digital" to some extent.
There were "golden nuggets" in various UK universities exploring digital, but the centre would specialise in it.
And he envisages it linking up with partners across the world including Singapore and China.
