The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced that Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory will receive £75 million in government investment as part of Wednesday’s Spending Review.

The announcement came as the Chancellor outlined plans to protect the science budget in real terms, saying: “In the modern world, one of the best ways you can back business is by backing science.” As a result, the science budget will rise by £4.7 billion over the course of the Parliament.

Osborne indicated the funds would be used to finance “a transformation of the famous Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge, where Crick and Rutherford expanded our knowledge of the universe.” In response, the university said that transforming the Cavendish Laboratory will “maintain Britain’s position at the forefront of physical sciences research”.

The Cavendish Laboratory stands to receive £150 million in total, with the university saying that they intend to match the government’s £75 million investment.

In advance of the announcement on Wednesday, the university advertised in June for architects to design a new £150 million building for the Department of Physics, to be built close to the current site of the Cavendish Laboratory on the West Cambridge Site.

The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, said that the announcement “presents a major opportunity for us to create a world-leading facility in the heart of the greater Cambridge high-tech cluster and deliver a step-change in physical science research capability in the UK”.

News of the government’s investment was also welcomed by the Head of the Department of Physics, Professor Andy Parker, who said that the Department “look[s] forward to working with partners in government and industry and other universities to further the globally important research which this department undertakes”.

Professor Parker pointed to the Cavendish’s “extraordinary history of discovery and innovation in physics”, and said that “this funding allows us to continue the tradition of innovation and originality that has been at the heart of the laboratory’s programme since its foundation.”

Among those who have held the position of Cavendish Professor of Physics are James Clerk Maxwell, J. J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford. The laboratory has also seen the discoveries of the electron, neutron and the structure of DNA.