An innovation centre which will soon be home to 40 start-up companies is celebrating its first birthday.

Harwell Innovation Centre, the largest of ten centres managed by Oxford Innovation, has exceeded expectations, and is likely to be employing about 200 people by the end of this year.

Dr David Kingham, chief executive of Oxford Innovation, said: "Our innovation centres provide flexible business premises for new science, technology, knowledge-based and creative companies.

"Harwell has a very strong brand name among scientist and engineers and there is an entrepreneurial streak in the local economy.

"It is therefore not surprising that the centre has attracted so many interesting businesses, though the uptake of space has been much faster than we expected."

The centre is at the Harwell site, where space was left vacant since the privatisation of the Atomic Energy Authority. The profitable side of the science establishement became AEA Technology, which floated on the stock market, and the site management was taken on by UKAEA, still publicly owned.

Dr Kingham said: "UKAEA has helped enormously in the process to help us get established."

The 23 companies at the centre employ about 120 staff, with lettings agreed on just over half the available space - some 12,500 sq ft. Businesses include marketing company Beckdale and Internet specialists Bunnyfoot, Site Intelligence and Hi2.