Construction of Stem Cell Center in Kragujevac starts in late autumn 2013 - Project worth EUR 12 million

Although announced more than two years ago, the construction of Stem Cell Center in Kragujevac, the cost of which is estimated at nearly EUR 12 million, will most probably kick off in late autumn 2013, Kragujevac University Rector Slobodan Arsenijevic told Tanjug news agency today.

According to him, this 10,000 sqm complex comprising Stem Cell Institute and Stem Cell Bank will be managed by Miodrag Stojkovic, a geneticist from Serbia. It will be built on a site between the Clinical Center and the University. The value of this site, which has been allotted by the city free of charge for that purpose, is estimated at EUR 2.4 million.

Reminding that the Ministry of Education and Science has secured the funding for the construction of Stem Cell Center within the Faculty of Medicine from the European Investment Bank (EIB), Arsenijevic explains that the "construction has not started yet for procedural reasons, because the documents signed before did not clearly define duties and assign them, as well as due to an attempt to implement that important project in another city."

He stressed that the University had had to give up the funding for the science and technology park so Kragujevac could obtain Stem Cell Center.