A multi-million pound research centre to develop new treatments for illnesses such as stroke and diabetes is being launched in the North-East.

The £3.65m development being built in the Leazes wing of Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary will provide state-of-the-art facilities to carry out life-saving research that will benefit hundreds of thousands of patients.

Creating a perfect copy of a 16-bed hospital ward, the unit will also have seven out-patient bays and a waiting area and has been designed so that clinical trials can be carried out on patients without the need to take up vital NHS space.

Professor Gary Ford, one of the team leading the joint venture between Newcastle Hospitals Trust and Newcastle University, said the aim was to provide a "catalyst" for high quality clinical research and create better treatments for patients.

"It has become increasingly difficult to undertake clinical research because there is so much pressure on NHS beds," said Prof Ford, who works jointly for both the university and the trust.

"But for many drug trials it means monitoring a patient over, for example, 24 hours and for that they need to be in a hospital bed attached to the relevant equipment, even though they aren't actually in need of hospital care.

"We hope this new unit will become a focal point for clinical research in the North-East and one of the leading research facilities in the country."

Funded by the Newcastle Hospitals Charity, the University and the Wolfson Foundation, the team has also scooped long-term funding from the Department of Health of £250,000 a year until 2009 to help with the running costs.

This will guarantee world-class research.