A brand new £800,000 research facility in the centre of Bradford will try to determine once and for all whether mobile phones are a danger to users.

Bradford University scientists will use the new centre to measure how much radiation passes in to the ear of mobile phone users. The university has built an anechoic chamber inside its state-of-the-art Mobile and Satellite Communications Research Centre (MSCR).

The £800,000 chamber, paid for by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the EU, consists of a sound-proof room with dead acoustics which blocks out all radio waves, radiation and magnetic interference.

The futuristic-looking chamber, located in the centre's Radio Frequency Engineering Laboratory, measures 100 cubic metres and is set to play a vital role in MSCRC's research in the areas of mobile, wireless and satellite communications.

Raed Abd-Alhameed, Professor of Electromagnetics and Radio Frequency Engineering at the university's School of Engineering, Design and Technology, is one of the leading researchers at MSCRC. He said: "We are very proud of the anechoic chamber and it will serve an important role.

"The chamber totally isolates outside interference and signals from such things as radio waves and mobile phone transmissions that constantly surround us. This means we can test sensors, antennas and other transmission devices in a completely controlled environment, measuring performance and efficiency."

The centre is currently examining how radiation from mobile phone handsets can affect people.

Prof Abd-Alhameed added: "The EPSRC is funding research here into the design of new antennas for mobile phone handsets to reduce coupling' between the hand and the handset.

"What that basically means is we are looking at how a different sort of antenna could reduce the amount of radiation that passes into your hand when you hold a mobile phone, which not only might have health implications but also impairs the performance of the handset."

Prof Abd-Ahlameed added radiation from mobile phones could have "some effect" on users but the research he and his colleagues were now carrying out would not measure this.

"It's impossible to get rid of radiation completely," he said. "But we can reduce it. The main concern is the power transmitted by each mobile phone. But we are looking at the antenna. We have been working with mobile phone companies on this."

Prof Abd-Alhameed said it was not always easy to measure the impact radiation could have on mobile phone users as the location of the user could alter the amount of radiation.

The anechoic chamber has already been used for research as part of an ongoing project with Yorkshire Water. It aims to investigate the capabilities of implementing wireless and sensor technologies to help Yorkshire Water better manage its drainage infrastructure.

In 2005, the MSCRC received funding from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward to establish the Wireless Centre of Industrial Collaboration (CIC) in partnership with the University of Leeds. The Wireless CIC will work with industry to implement the findings delivered by the Bradford-based MSCRC to industry.