The Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic is to form one unit after the reconstruction

České Budějovice - The project to modernize the Biological Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences in České Budějovice aims to create a single unit from several buildings. The costs for the reconstruction, which representatives of the scientific institution presented today, amount to approximately two billion crowns. The first work on the project will begin next year. Representatives of the Biological Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences shared this information with journalists.

Currently, the buildings are connected by long corridors. "A central passage will be created between the individual buildings, which will function as a covered square where employees can meet and share their ideas. There will be space for meeting rooms, informal seating with refreshments, as well as shared workplaces that employees from all institutes can use, such as an electron microscopy laboratory," said Martin Krupauer from the A8000 studio, which prepared the architectural study.

With its six research institutions, the Biological Center is the largest non-Prague institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and is also among the largest scientific institutions focused on ecological research in Europe. It employs 700 staff members. "We want to keep pace with global science, and for that, we need appropriate facilities," said the director of the Biological Center, Libor Grubhoffer. The gradual modernization will take approximately 10 years.

The Biological Center is raising funds for the project. So far, it has been promised 500 million crowns from the Academy of Sciences, which will provide the funds over the next ten years. Just the project preparation will cost more than 37 million crowns. The initiative has received financial support from the South Bohemian Region and the city of České Budějovice.

The Biological Center includes, among other things, an entomology institute, a parasitology institute, a plant molecular biology institute, a hydrobiology institute, a soil biology institute, and the SoWa research infrastructure. Most of the buildings are older than 40 years.