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The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, one of three institutes that make up the troubled Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences, is to forge closer links with nearby University of Liverpool.

John Lawton, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, which funds the CCMS, and Philip Love, Liverpool vice-chancellor, signed a statement of intent last week to relocate the lab to Liverpool.

The move will reverse a policy of greater integration between the centre's three constituent laboratories. The other two are the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in Devon and the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory at Oban.