As home to manufacturing plants for 11 out of the world’s top 20 chipmakers it seems only fitting that the UK should be designated home for a National Microelectronics Institute. It is based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and run by nine manufacturers representing the semiconductor industry in partnership with the government. The Institute will focus on the co-ordination of training, supply and research infrastructure for the UK semiconductor industry. The idea is for the Scottish center to promote co-operation among industry, governments and academia in the semiconductor field and provide a coherent framework for co-ordinating existing activity. It will be owned collectively by the participating companies: Motorola Inc, NEC Corp , National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd and Seagate Microelectronics Ltd, based in Scotland – Seagate also has a big plant in Northern Ireland; Siemens Microelectronics Ltd and Fujitsu Ltd based in the northeast of England; from South Wales is Newport Wafer Fab Ltd; the northwest-based Philips Semiconductors arm of Philips Electronics NV, and GEC-Plessey Semiconductors Ltd, which has major sites throughout England. Dr George Bennett of Motorola will chair the operation and a chief executive will be appointed shortly. Ian Lang, UK President of the Board of Trade, said the Institute would become the national focus for the UK’s development of an industry worth around $4,000m annually to the UK.