The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen has been located in protected historical buildings since its foundation. The arrangement of the old buildings (some of them have served to the faculty for 65 years) hasn´t conformed to demands of current teaching and research. That’s why the Charles University in Prague has been preparing construction of a new university medical center (campus). The future building site – undeveloped property nearby the University Hospital – was approved for the development of the Faculty already 40 years ago but the University was lacking finance for this expansion. While the University Hospital gradually obtained substantial funds for its investment plans from the government budget, the Faculty of Medicine did not succeed to start the construction at all.
The change came with the beginning of the millennium when the University was able to buy the property. Consequently, an opportunity to subsidize the construction from the European Structural Funds appeared. At that moment, an application for the grant was moment the only, although demanding, way to fulfil the long-term goals of the Faculty – better quality of teaching, enhanced research output, higher attention to the talented, appropriate employment of the graduates, advanced cooperation with significant foreign research organizations and research transfer.
The faculty has been granted funding in two individual projects. The first one ranks among projects that build a new infrastructure for teaching. It has brought the Faculty a new residence for five theoretical institutes, comprising 5 000 m² of modern laboratories, teachers´ office rooms and other spaces on seven floors.
The second project was aimed at research infrastructure, resulting in building the Biomedical Center. This research institute should further develop disciplines in which the Faculty has already reached internationally competitive results. The research teams of the Center were formed in spring 2012 and researchers immediately started to work on their tasks. The research fields of the Center include replacement, support and regeneration of the vital organs.
Total expenditures of this first part of the new campus, including the buildings, equipment and other costs, exceed 600 million Czech crowns. The subsidy from the ERDF has been supplemented by the state budget of the Czech Republic and own resources of the University and the Faculty. Subsequent stages of the construction will include additional buildings with labs, studies, lecture halls, dean’s office and management of the Faculty and will be realized when the University obtains further funding.