Centre for Medical Studies and Biocentre in Plzeň ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Since its foundation 65 years ago, the Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň has been located in hi valuable buildings that are protected by heritage conservation regulations. The buildings designed for a different use, and their structure and layout no longer meets the needs of and research. To address this problem, for more than 40 years Charles University has been new University centre for medical studies – a campus on a site adjacent to the Plzeň Facul in Lochotín, where land has already been purchased for the development. Over the years the Hospital has managed to acquire funding for this purpose from the state budget, though it been possible to launch the construction of the new campus. In the interim period, the Fac to cope with a constant and dynamic growth in student numbers, combined with the need to m teaching facilities. These issues have been dealt with by carrying out some interior recon implementing costly maintenance programmes at the Faculty’s current premises. The Faculty has a comprehensive plan for its new campus, covering the overall layout and a and structural details. The plan has been approved by the relevant building authority. In Faculty decided to apply for EU funding from the Operational Programme (OP) Research and D Innovations, and preparatory work began on two smaller-scale investment projects. One of these two smaller-scale projects involves (in its first phase) the construction of Centre for Medical Studies, which will use funding from the OP R&D for Innovations under t axis ‘Infrastructure for Teaching Connected with Research at Higher Education Institutions application was submitted in June 2010 and the project was approved for co-financing in Se On 29 April 2011 the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Josef Dobeš signed the docume official decision to provide a subsidy to Charles University to implement its project for Medical Studies at the University’s Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň (Phase I) as part of the for Innovations, priority axis 4 (Infrastructure for Teaching Connected with Research at H Institutions). The governing body of the OP R&D for Innovations is the Czech Ministry of E and Sports (http://www.msmt.cz/strukturalni-fondy/op-vavpi). The Minister and the Universi press release on the occasion of the signing of the decision. The aim of the project is to build a 7-storey structure with a usable area of over 5,000 m five theoretical institutes – the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, the Institute Physiology, the Institute of Physiology, the Institute of Biology, and the Institute of Bi These institutes will move from their current premises, thus freeing up more teaching and which will benefit the remaining parts of the Faculty. The new building will have practica laboratories, staff offices and other amenities. The total eligible project expenditure is approx. CZK 171.4 million; this is all classifie expenditure except for the sum of CZK 65,000. Of the total amount, 85 per cent will be fin through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), while the remaining 15 per cent wil the Czech Republic’s state budget (with the same sum deducted from the applicant’s operati The project will generate a range of benefits for stakeholders. Besides the new building i provide state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, the project represents a unique stimulate the quality of both practical and theoretical teaching – providing for more prac training which will boost graduates’ employment prospects, as well as enabling the Faculty talented young researchers and ultimately to improve research performance. The project wil close links between theoretical teaching at the Faculty and practical training in the Facu which employs many of the Faculty’s most respected teaching staff. The implementation of the project began on 1 May 2011; operations in the new building are launch in September 2014. The second of the Faculty’s smaller-scale investments project is the construction of a Bio in Plzeň, subsidized under priority axis 2 of the OP R&D for Innovations, which promotes t of regional research centres. This project builds on many years of work during which the F Faculty Hospital have collaborated to achieve excellent results in the field of biomedical The project application was submitted in November 2009. The application was approved, allo negotiation process to start. On 29 March 2012, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport signed the document confirming the official decision to provide the subsidy, and a joint p issued by the Minister and the University to announce the decision. The implementation pha began in April 2012 and will continue until June 2015. The main objective of the Biomedical Centre project is the development of a high-quality r biomedical research centre with a unique focus on organ replacement and regeneration. The programmes and activities to be pursued at the new Centre were identified on the basis of competitive research results already achieved, the potential for clinical application of t the compatibility of the programmes with the Czech Republic’s long-term research prioritie The construction part of the project will include two buildings containing laboratories an a total area of more than 4,000 m2. However, the focal point of the project is not the inv (though capital expenditure on construction and equipment accounts for approx. 75 per cent subsidy funding). Investment in research infrastructure is merely a tool to support and ha research potential and creativity of the Centre’s research teams, which will gradually be employ up to 120 staff (mostly on a part-time basis). Research at the newly established Centre will be focused on cooperation with a range of ou research institutions; a key aspect will be the commercialization of the Centre’s research research findings, and the new technologies arising from the research, will be directly im therapeutic and preventive care. Besides research work, the Centre will also participate i students of Master’s and PhD programmes. The total expenditure on the project is around CZK 440 mil. Of this sum, approx. CZK 406 m covered by subsidies, with 85 per cent coming from the EU through the European Regional De (ERDF) and 15 per cent from the Czech Republic’s state budget. The preparatory work for the construction part of both projects – carried out by a single selected through a public tender – began in September 2012. The archaeological survey took and was followed by the launch of construction work in November. Charles University in Prague and its Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň are keen to ensure that projects are completed as soon as possible, as they will help the University optimize the Master’s and PhD degree programmes as well as boosting the presence of teaching and resear and natural sciences in a region that is still primarily focused on technical fields and h projects will also improve regional employment levels in cutting-edge fields, and will rep contribution to developing and improving medical care. Animation [ URL "http://www.cuni.cz/files/kampus/NEMlfuk.wmv"]