Attempts to build a high-technology corridor between Cambridge and Ipswich were boosted yesterday after the troubled photonics research facility at Adastral Park won government backing and a big research contract.

The future of the facility, near Ipswich, was in doubt when former owners Corning, the US telecommunications and glass products company, last year pulled out as part of a global restructuring of its operations. The East of England Development Agency stepped in to protect technology and expertise on the site.

The new Centre for Integrated Photonics has won interim funding from the Department of Trade and Industry of £550,000, putting it in line for longer-term support and will benefit from a £1.22m photonics contract from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

EEDA is committed to helping Adastral Park develop as a site for universities and industry as part of an emerging corridor linking information technology facilities in Suffolk with IT, biotechnology and other developments in "Silicon Fen".

The centre's future, as part of the complex being developed at BT's former research park of Martlesham Heath, is now assured for at least two years, according to Stephen Holton, CIP chief executive. "This centre now has assets which it would cost £32m to replicate," he said yesterday.

The DTI award ensures the centre can keep running while its application to be a hub in a new national network of sites dedicated to the development of nanotechnology is considered by the government.

The centre has secured contracts worth about £200,000 with the private sector allowing industry to use its facilities. The research council grant has been made to a consortium led by University College, London, one of eight universities with links to the park.

The centre hopes to help pioneer the application of photonics to other technology areas beyond telecommunications - including defence and biotechnology.