BOLTON'S Technical Innovation Centre has been awarded a £100,000 grant to identify creative children across the borough.

The TIC, a purpose-built academy for young inventors and entrepreneurs on the site of Mount St Joseph Business and Enterprise College, has been awarded £100,000 over three years from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).

With the investment, the TIC will identify and select children with exceptional creative potential at Years Seven, Eight and Nine from all secondary schools in Bolton. The pupils will benefit from the top-class facilities at the £2.5 million centre.

The idea was first proposed by Paul Abbott, a teacher at Mount St Joseph school who is now the director and general manager of the TIC.

He said: "A successful national economy relies crucially on its ability to innovate.

"The TIC seeks to provide the vital link between education and industry which has been missing."

The TIC aims to provide access to technologies and technical and business expertise.

Sarah Macnee, acting NESTA learning director, said: "This project supports one of NESTA's key learning objectives, which is finding new ways of testing approaches to nurturing enterprise and entrepreneurship in schools.

"We hope that the work of the TIC over the next few years will establish a model that can be replicated throughout the UK."