A base to combat the global threat of a flu pandemic is being set up in Scotland.

The £4.3m research hub, which will try to develop vaccines and drugs to help counter an outbreak, will be the first of its kind in Britain. Announcing details of the facility today, Edinburgh University said it would be at the forefront of the world's efforts to prevent an avian flu pandemic.

The staff will also investigate new treatments for common influenza. Experts from Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews University will all work on the research, although the hub will be situated in the capital.

Epidemiologists have warned for sometime a new flu strain, that spreads rapidly from country to country claiming millions of lives, is due to emerge.

A close watch is being kept on the H5N1 virus, which has been circulating among birds, as it could mutate and pass from human to human.

According to the World Health Organisation, 186 people have died of bird flu since H5N1 surfaced in South-east Asia in 2003. Almost all the people who have become infected with the disease lived or worked closely with poultry. However, in at least one case there is enough evidence to show that person-to-person transmission occurred.

Dr Jim McMenamin, epidemiologist with the surveillance agency Health Protection Scotland, said: "Anything that assists in treatment or effectiveness of vaccines is certainly welcome. Having that research on our doorstep is certainly going to be of benefit to Scotland and potentially the rest of the UK."

Professor Tony Nash is director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Human and Avian Influenza Research, due to open in September. He said: "This new centre will be unique in terms of influenza research with a variety of specialists working together with a common aim.

"Our ultimate hope is that we can achieve new ways of predicting and controlling major flu outbreaks as well as discovering new therapies that quickly translate into products for humans and animals."