KENT'S world-renowned centre for fruit research, saved for the nation by a £12.3m Government lifeline, must find new funding sources to ensure its long-term survival.

East Malling Research (EMR), the new agency that has grown out of a shake-up of Horticulture Research International (HRI), starts on April 1, thanks to a guaranteed six-year grant.

But the centre of excellence needs to win more financial support from the food industry if it is to maintain a research tradition established over nearly a century.

The unique site was threatened with closure when the Government announced the axing of guaranteed research funding. More than a third of the 140-strong workforce lost their jobs.

But intense lobbying by influential players in the private and public sectors persuaded the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to back a rescue plan.

That deal was sealed at a ceremony on March 17 - Budget Day - when Defra minister Lord Whitty signed an agreement and symbolically planted a rare Prunus Iford tree, one of only 41 such trees in the world.

Under the plan, HRI will operate as two separate companies - Warwick-HRI - part of the University of Warwick - and EMR, which also has a site at Wye, near Ashford.

On the day Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown pledged more money for science and research, Lord Whitty said the Government had rightly been criticised for "the volatility of our research contribution”.

But the "unprecedented" commitment to £12.3m until 2010 would help EMR establish itself. However, there were no promises on future investment and he expected industry to contribute more.

Chief executive Colin Gutteridge, who spent part of his boyhood in West Malling and East Farleigh, picked up Lord Whitty's challenge, vowing to make EMR financially independent of Government.

"Over a five or six year period we have to broaden the customer base sufficiently that if there was no Government commitment to research, we could survive."

He said it was unlikely that the Government would pull out altogether.

"But from the point of view of good business practice, we have to plan accordingly."

That meant finding more sources of industrial and international funding.

If his plans succeeded, EMR would begin to create new jobs. He had achieved that in his previous job at Reading Scientific Services, after initially shedding staff.

"By broadening the expertise base and the services we offer, we were able to go back and grow again and I hope to pull the same thing off here. It will take two to three years before we get motoring but I am sure we will in the end create employment."

Ian Graham-Bryce, chairman of the East Malling Trust, said: "This is a rebirth in a climate of multiple opportunities. We've got a new company, with a new board, an impressive new chief executive and we also have a new concept.

"East Malling Research will once again be the master of its own destiny, with all the challenges and advantages that brings."

It would also make a major contribution to the regeneration of the rural economy.