There is a long tradition of research cooperation between Czech and Austrian scientists. There are many reasons for this such as the close vicinity, similar cultural background, support of cross-border research grants etc. However, the latest research directions in biology and technology rely increasingly on support by facilities with specific equipment and highly-skilled experts. The current trends show that the usage of such facilities will be even more considerable in the future and access to them is becoming crucial. Although coordination and shared use of research infrastructures on European level has been already implemented and heavily supported, a targeted support of research infrastructures on the regional level is still missing although the need is eminent. Support of these activities will enable access to research infrastructures to local, potentially innovative academic and industrial users, thus contribute to the development of the regional biotech sector, which is the main goal of the proposed project.
There are several centers operating biomedical and technology research facilities in the AT – CZ cross-border region. Two most prominent organizations operating research infrastructures in this region, i.e. Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities, GmbH in Vienna (VBCF) and Central European Institute of Technology in Brno (CEITEC) have recognized the urgent need for collaboration of their facilities and therefore propose the project whose main objectives will be:

• Sharing best practices in managing core facilities, sharing knowledge and expertise leading to improvement of the provided services
• Innovation of services through joint use of complementary equipment on both sides of the border
• Enabling access to the research infrastructures to external users

All of the proposed main objectives are targeted to the development of the whole region through the offer of cutting-edge innovative services, which will increase the region’s competitiveness in research. Without mutual interaction of the facilities would not be possible to develop this kind of services as many of them possess complementary equipment which when used together can provide services on significantly higher level than when used separately. This synergistic effect will be accompanied by better exploitation and accessibility of the infrastructure existing in the region.

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