The prime minister Gordon Brown will today announce the creation of a £500m research centre to tackle health threats such as HIV, meningitis, and cancer.

The new UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) is a collaboration between the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College London. It will be located on a three-and-a-half acre site near the British Library and St Pancras station after it won a bidding contest to purchase the land from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

The centre will become the new home of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), which the MRC has decided to move from north to central London, ending four years of uncertainty over the institute's future.

The announcement follows the launch of a five-year cancer strategy outlined by Mr Brown on Monday.

The Nobel Laureate, Sir Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University in the US, will lead the scientific planning of the centre, determining the shape and direction of its research and the facilities it will need. The centre is expected to house up to 1500 researchers drawn from the collaboration's partners and is due to open in 2013.

The centre will also train future generations of medical scientists to enable them to better translate medical discoveries into health benefits for the public.

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive of the MRC, said: "The UKCMRI will form a hub for innovation and excellence at the heart of this great city. This centre will be of crucial importance to the UK's plans to ensure that medical research findings are turned into benefits for patients and the economy as efficiently as possible.

"UKCMRI will not only bring together academics and clinicians but also offer opportunities for industry to work with and alongside our researchers. This will be enhanced by relocating the technology arms of Cancer Research UK and the MRC to this site."

But scientists from the NIMR complain that they have been "kept in the dark" about the move. They have expressed concern that some NIMR scientists will be lost in the move due to the limit on the number of researchers the new centre can accommodate and the increased costs of running an institute in the centre of London.