National chemistry services get revamp

* National chemistry services for researchers are to be revamped following a usage review of the 12 facilities supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The chemical database at Daresbury, mass spectrometry at Swansea, electron paramagnetic resonance at Manchester, Cardiff and St Andrews, nuclear magnetic resonance at Durham and X-ray crystallography at Southampton will all continue as before.

But other services at King's College London, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Edinburgh, Warwick and Daresbury will lose their national centre status because the equipment they offer has become commonplace in university chemistry departments.