THIS weekend, my attention was drawn to David Willets’ speech about the role of universities in higher education “cold spots”.

Wiltshire is one of the few counties remaining with no university presence at all. I know within the constituency there is a body of respected opinion that feels Salisbury is wellplaced to deliver such an institution, given its rich cultural and historic heritage.

Some would argue that we have the ability to deliver a nationally-leading centre of excellence in history, religion and the arts as a result.

I do not disagree with this assertion, but, in my judgement, to make the arts the core focus of a university in Wiltshire would not be the best first step in a journey to achieving this goal.

We have a world leading life sciences industry locally. This is driven by public and private sector investment and operates at the forefront of innovation. Porton Down is one of the UK’s largest assets in terms of research and development, and any proposed university here should logically have the life sciences at its core. DSTL and QinetiQ also offer valuable opportunities in terms of military science that the UTC will be tapping into: a university itself could build on this work.

Last month, I met with staff from the Wessex Academic Health Science Network, who discussed their ambitious plans to create an institute for vaccine and infectious disease research based around Porton, linked in with the University of Southampton and the Wessex Regional Genetics Lab based at Odstock.

Such a partnership would provide a unique concentration of expertise – one that would be well-placed to offer virtually unrivalled opportunities to students.

A university would bring substantial benefits to Wiltshire in terms of jobs and investment: but the first step must be to take the opportunity to launch a pioneering institute with a global reputation for scientific research – probably aligned to Southampton University but based in south Wiltshire.

The potential of this facility only underscores the reasons why Public Health England should remain at Porton – an argument I will be emphasising when I meet with Department of Health officials next week.

I look forward to meetings with the Trussell Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England and the chief executive of our hospital as I start the Easter recess on Friday.