EUROPE’S oldest and longest-running science event is coming to Brighton and Hove in what is being hailed as a massive coup for the area.

The 150-year-old British Science Festival will be held in Brighton and Hove between September 5 and 9 next year and will gain publicity worth millions of pounds to the city and its two universities - which are hosting the event.

It is the first time that two universities have been chosen to co-host the event and organisers said they hoped to create the best science festival ever.

One hundred and twenty events will be held across five days with 15,000 festivalgoers expected to attend.

The festival has hosted several notable scientific moments in the past including a debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution between Thomas Huxley and the Bishop of Oxford in 1860 and has been held in Brighton on three occasions - in 1872, 1948 and 1983.

The opening event will be held in the £14 million Advanced Engineering Centre which is due to open at the University of Brighton in May.

Events including talks, debates, workshops and performances will be held at the universities' Falmer campuses in the afternoon before moving to city locations for the evenings.

University of Brighton vice-chancellor Debra Humphris said the university was prepared to put forward a “considerable chunk of money” towards the festival’s costs at a difficult time because of the significant benefits it would bring to the university and wider area.

The University of Birmingham, which who hosted the festival in 2014, said it brought in the equivalent of £5 million worth of media coverage in just one week with the festival featuring in more than 2,500 print articles.

Andrew Swayne, of Coast to Capital LEP and newly-appointed independent chairman of the festival organising committee, said the prestigious event would play a vital role in raising the profile of the area and establishing a legacy.

He added: “It’s a huge result to get the festival in its own right, that’s big stuff.

“It will attract a huge number of people who might not necessarily come to Brighton otherwise.

“It will be held just before the TUC conference, we had to see whether it fitted in the city diary and it just about goes.

“If we can find the right star speaker to sell-out the Dome, we will.”

Professor Michael Davies, pro-vice chancellor for research at the University of Sussex, said: “We are thrilled to welcome the festival back to our city.

"Many staff still connected to the University of Sussex remember fondly the impact of the event when we hosted it back in 1983.

"Collaboration sits at the heart of our approach to scientific discovery and impact through combining disciplines, working with a wide range of partners and most importantly engaging and encouraging brilliant minds to be involved.”