THE SOUTH MORAVIAN REGION
The South Moravian Region with its 1.2 million inhabitants lies in the southeast of the Czech Republic and borders with Austria in the south and with Slovakia in the east.
The South Moravia is a perspective region with a good infrastructure of human resources, functional institutional territory as well as entrepreneurial sphere. Main regional city of Brno (370 thousand inhabitants) is judged as having the best economic potential in the Central Europe. It is predicted that the city’s rapid economic growth will continue due to a favourable structure of undergraduates, especially in biotechnological and technical fields.
In Brno, there are six universities with 65,000 students, of whom over 6,000 are studying for a PhD degree. Masaryk University, Brno Technical University, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno are universities with the best scientific record.
The region has nearly 11,000 people employed in the research and development sector, of which 7,000 are researchers.
Furthermore, there are 24 laboratories of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Brno, among them Institute of Biophysics, Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Scientific Instruments, Institute of Physics of Materials, Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetic are the most significant. From the other research institution in the region it is important to mention also the Veterinary Research Institute.
South Moravian Region will also benefit from new research infrastructures (esp. in the life science domain). The most important being Masaryk University Campus in Brno-Bohunice for Medical Faculty, Faculty of Science and ILBIT (Integrated Labs of Biomedical Technologies), the project of ICRC (International Clinical Research Centre), which is realised in co-operation with the Mayo Clinic, USA, the CEITEC project (Central European Institute of Technology) focusing among others on biomedical research, molecular and cellular biology and high-speed computing facilitieus.
Further information about the South Moravian Region, its history, culture etc.:
World press release about Brno:
Reuters 4.9.2008: Czech city bids to be global biotech hub
Websites about the region:
South Moravia - Travel Booking Portal
Turist Authority South Moravia
A film about Brno: