THE privatised successor to DERA, which will be formally created on July 2, 2001, will be called QinetiQ.

The new name was chosen from a list of 400 which was narrowed down after careful consultation with staff, customers, the Ministry of Defence and opinion-formers.

It is meant to reflect the organisation's spirit of creativity and suggest "energy, motion and progress".

The name will apply to the private-public partnership which will take over about three-quarters of DERA's operations. The rest will remain with the MoD as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.