In Brno, the construction of a scientific center for 5 billion has begun

Brno - The universities in Brno today ceremonially inaugurated the construction of the main buildings of the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC). New pavilions will be built in the campus of Masaryk University in Bohunice and in the area of the Brno University of Technology (VUT) under Palacký Hill. The total costs for the construction and equipping of CEITEC amount to 5.246 billion CZK. The campus will be fully operational in 2014, said representatives of the Brno universities to journalists.
      The establishment of the Central European Institute of Technology is supported by the European Union. According to one of the scientific directors, Jaroslav Koči, researchers aim to bridge the boundaries between the life sciences and technical fields. The concrete results will contribute to improving the quality of life and human health. Scientists at CEITEC plan to collaborate with the commercial and application sectors.
      Although the CEITEC infrastructure is gradually being established, some research teams are already operating in the laboratories of Brno universities. In recent months, researchers have showcased, for example, the development of an ultra-hard lacquer that can replace natural tooth enamel. They also discovered that the phenomenon of déjà vu has a neurological origin and is related to structures in the human brain. Furthermore, scientists at CEITEC have made progress in researching the most common type of leukemia.
      According to Minister of Education Petr Fiala, CEITEC is an example of a project that is not created from scratch. It builds on the work of scientific teams that have already achieved good results. "I believe that in a few years there will be not only above-average but top-notch scientific results here that can stand comparison with international competition,” said Fiala. According to him, it is one of the largest investments in scientific infrastructure in the Czech Republic.
      CEITEC has international ambitions and attracts foreign scientists as well as Czech researchers who are currently working at universities in western countries. "We expect the arrival of foreign managers, a scientific director, and an executive director in the coming months,” said Martin Bareš, who leads the project following the departure of Tomáš Hruda to the Ministry of Education.
      The total planned area of the CEITEC laboratories is 25,000 square meters, where up to a thousand scientists will find work. The construction is divided into several parts and sub-contracts. In one of the tenders for the natural sciences laboratories in the area under Palacký Hill, the Office for the Protection of Competition found errors and reinstated two originally disqualified companies. According to VUT spokesperson Jitka Vanýsková, everything has now been resolved and construction in the Brno Technical University area has begun. Construction is also taking place in the Bohunice campus, where the foundations of a pavilion with an atypical elliptical floor plan are already visible.
      In addition to Masaryk University and the Brno University of Technology, the establishment of the institute is also supported by Mendel University, the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine, and the Institute of Materials Physics of the Academy of Sciences. Individual research programs focus, for example, on nanotechnology, advanced materials, structural biology, molecular medicine, and brain research.