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CEITEC Brno: a new centre of excellence will boost research capacities in CENTROPE
The European Commission has greenlit a new centre of excellence at CEITEC (Central European Institute of Technology) in Brno. The centre will focus on research and development in biomedicine, advanced materials and technologies and will be an asset for deeper cross-border research co-operation in CENTROPE.
The signature of Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, marked the definitive full stop capping a nearly eighteen-month-long application and selection process. The beneficiary of CZK 5.2 billion from the European Structural Funds is Masaryk University, which submitted the project jointly with other Brno universities and research institutions. The proposal is the second-largest and best-evaluated project in a funding line on research and development for innovation. The unique character of the project consists in its tight interweaving of life sciences with the research and development of advanced materials and new technologies. The project aims at building a leading European centre of excellence with high-tech equipment and attractive conditions for the very best scientists. First-class equipment will be used by 600 scientists and experts from the Czech Republic as well as from abroad; up to 1,200 students will be engaged in research programmes.
With this extra funding, CEITEC’s broad research programmes, ranging from advanced nanotechnologies and materials to genomics, molecular medicine, brain research and molecular veterinary medicine, will give rise to a broad spectrum of innovations, such as nanorobots, special hydrogels able to join partial bone fractures, tailored dental prostheses or self-cleaning coats for buildings. Based on the research of human and animal molecules and cells conducted at CEITEC, doctors will be able to diagnose contagious, oncological and other serious diseases in time and with high reliability.
CEITEC is an explicitly Central European institute; therefore a co-operation of universities in Brno, Vienna and Bratislava is to develop within the project. The establishment of this centre of excellence may be considered an important milestone on the way towards knowledge economies in the whole CENTROPE region. The carriers of the CEITEC project are Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology, Mendel University, the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno, the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Veterinary Research Institute.
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