We are part of the APBC project, which connects science, innovation, and talent in Slovakia

On October 2-3, 2025, the opening ceremony of the Advanced Protein Biotechnology Consortium (APBC) project took place at the GES Club Košice – a unique scientific and innovation project that represents a significant step in strengthening cooperation between academia and the biotechnology industry in Slovakia.

The APBC project has an ambitious goal – to develop excellent research in the field of protein biotechnology, support innovative solutions with high added value, and at the same time create conditions for young scientists, doctoral candidates and students who want to build their scientific careers at home.

At the same time, it seeks to prevent the outflow of talent abroad and support the return of Slovak experts back to the research environment. The project therefore has not only a scientific and innovative dimension, but also a significant social and regional impact – it contributes to the development of the start-up ecosystem, to the strengthening of the competitive high-tech sector and the economic growth of eastern Slovakia.

With financial support of 15.6 million euros, APBC is one of the largest scientific projects of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (UPJŠ), financed by the EU NextGenerationEU initiative through the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic (project no. 09I02-03-V01-00021).

As ICRC and the St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, we are one of the academic partners of the project, with our scientists contributing top-level expertise in protein engineering. Other academic partners include the Institute of Neuroimmunology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of Bayreuth, the University of Groningen, the University of Oxford, and the Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Košice, whose researchers bring first-class knowledge in polymers, biochemistry, and biophysics. The integration of scientific research with practical applications in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics is supported by the project’s industrial partners, namely Enantis and JUHAPHARM.