A specialist software house serving the needs of the European life insurance industry is one of the latest residents at Chilworth Science Park's business incubator.

TCP LifeSystems, whose head office is at Orpington, has opened its research and development arm at Chilworth, employing six people.

Director Tim Tribe said: "Originally it was the favourable and flexible terms that brought us to the Science Park, but we hadn't appreciated that we were going to get quite such tremendous support from Chilworth. They couldn't have been more helpful and we have taken advantage of the Southampton Enterprise Hub which provides all kinds of back-up."

Currently TCP is researching the next generation of systems needed by insurers to handle administration and process policies.

It is leading towards a first-of-its-kind application that will enable greater automation of policy administration over the Internet to save insurers both time and money.

The expanding company, whose clients include Scottish Widows, already has dealing with Ireland and Norway.

Tim said: "We will shortly be looking globally for business partners and joint ventures.''