VUT wants to build a research center in Brno-Medlánky for a billion

Brno - The Brno University of Technology plans to build a new research center for construction materials and technologies in Brno-Medlánky. The project, costing 1.05 billion crowns, is seeking support from European funds. The research center, named AdMaS - Advanced Construction Materials, Structures, and Technologies, has already obtained a final zoning decision. "VUT has conducted the largest land acquisition in its history because of this," said the university's treasurer, Vladimír Kotek, to journalists today.
    AdMaS has recently advanced to the international evaluation within the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovations. According to school representatives, the project has good prospects for obtaining funding. In the Czech Republic, according to the Brno University of Technology, there is a lack of institutions that integrate individual findings from researchers in the field of construction research.
    The new research complex will serve the Faculty of Civil Engineering, which is currently located in the city center. "The faculty has land at Kraví Hora, but cannot build such a research facility there," said rector Karel Rais. Therefore, the university chose suitable land between the university campus at Pod Palackého vrchem and the airport in Medlánky.
    According to the project, the AdMaS center will be a comprehensive research institution in all areas of construction. Three divisions of the center will focus on advanced construction materials, advanced structures, and mathematical modeling. The newly built facilities will provide space for experiments and research. Scientists aim, for example, to develop new construction materials, diagnostic methods for assessing the quality of materials and structures, as well as theoretical computational models.
    If the project is realized, research teams that currently do not have ideal conditions for their work will move to the AdMaS center. Nevertheless, they are achieving successes. For instance, experts from the Faculty of Civil Engineering recently developed non-metallic reinforcements for construction structures that are stronger than commonly used steel and at the same time cheaper than similar foreign materials.
    Originally space technologies based on glass and carbon fibers began to penetrate construction more strongly after the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. It was shown that if the "twin towers" had such reinforcements, their destruction might not have been so rapid, Rais noted.
    VUT is also preparing additional projects funded by European funds. Together with other scientific and university institutions, it is involved in the preparations for the Central European Institute of Technology CEITEC. For the NETME project, the school obtained 768 million. Young scientists at the research center will develop new materials and processes for the commercial sector.