Sutton will be home to a 'world-beating' research facility to defeat cancer thanks to a £30million grant.

The grant for a new state-of-the-art drug discovery facility at The Institute of Cancer Research is being funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and is part of a £177million funding scheme by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund in a project led by HEFCE.

The total cost of the building will be £70m and the Institute of Cancer Research said it needs to raise a further £20 million through a major capital fundraising campaign.

The Institute of Cancer Research's chairman Luke Johnson said: "This is a defining moment in the ICR’s 108-year history. Thanks to this £30 million grant, we shall shortly embark on the construction of a world-beating new facility in Sutton.”

The site for the new development will be at the back of the Sir Richard Doll Building on Cotswold Road.

Mr Johnson said over 275 multidisciplinary scientists will be working at the facility to discover new drugs to beat cancer.

He added: “The Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery is intended to be a centrepiece of The London Cancer Hub – a globally significant life-science innovation cluster that the ICR and the London Borough of Sutton are developing on our Sutton site.

“By attracting investment into the site from partners, donors and private enterprise, we can deliver major improvements in cancer treatment and huge benefits for the economy.”

Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, Professor Paul Workman, said: “We aspire to create a truly world-leading, £70 million new centre that can deliver major benefits for cancer patients. We plan to bring together experts in drug discovery and cancer evolution to tackle cancer in a totally new way, creating powerful medicines that can overcome drug resistance, extend life and increase cure rates.

“The Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery will allow the ICR to build on our already unrivalled track record in creating innovative new cancer medicines. We have discovered 20 new drug candidates since 2005 alone, and our prostate cancer drug abiraterone is benefiting hundreds of thousands of men worldwide.”

Mr Workman added that the building will be more than 7,000 square metres where cancer biologists, medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, clinicians, data scientists and evolutionary scientists will practice their craft.

He said the ambition was for the new facility to be ready in three years time.