The REGPOT (Regional Potential) grant system aims at the enhancement and fostering of promising research entities within the EU's outermost and convergence regions through a better integration with the core European Research Community.

MBG will participate in this EU-funded Support Action with a project called MBG-BRIDGE for a duration of 3.5 years and with a total sum of funding in the amount of 1.1 million Euro.

The acronym BRIDGE represents three prioritized research directions:

• Brain Research,
• Immunology, and
• Disease Genetics

The MBG-BRIDGE project is a basic intellectual development and infrastructure grant, which will enhance MBGs research capacity in the BRIDGE fields through a coherent measure of actions, including:

• the recruitment of new researchers,
• the partnering and interaction with leading European research entities, such as:
  • the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (Germany),
  • the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich (Germany),
  • the Flamish Institute for Biotechnology (Belgium), and
  • the Babraham Institute in Cambridge (UK),
• the acquisition and restructuring of high-end research equipment, and
• the hosting of seminars and scientific workshops at Bogazici University.

Together these measures will have a strong impact on the direction and the quality of research followed by MBG and will help MBG to develop as a national center of excellence in the BRIDGE fields, which are all relevant to biomedical research and human health.