The decision was made at the second meeting of the Steering Committee of the project, which took place today at the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of the Republic of Albania.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Ervin Demo, Deputy Minister, pointed out the great significance of the project for the region and stressing that Albania fully supported its implementation. In her introductory address to the members of the Committee, Montenegro's Minister of Science, Sanja Damjanović, referred to the necessity of establishing a large scientific infrastructure in the region, which would present a platform for the education of young scientists and a unique centre of excellence that would make the countries of the region competitive to the rest of Europe.

A special guest at the session of the Steering Committee was Prof. Herwig Schopper, former Director General of CERN and the creator of the Initiative for the Establishment of the South-East Europe International Institute for Sustainable Technologies. He pointed out that such a large project could not be financed by a single country, and further indicated that the European Commission regarded the project positively, which meant that the decision on the option of the Institute was an ideal signal for Brussels that the countries of the region worked together and had a common goal.

Following the decision, agreement was also reached on a draft Memorandum of Cooperation, to be submitted by the Committee to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Rumen Radev, who initially proposed that the Memorandum be signed by the Prime Ministers at the EU-WB Summit in Sofia in May. In addition, the next steps of the Committee will be to implement the preparatory activities for developing the main design and the business plan.

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It is worth noting that Hadron cancer therapy with protons and heavy ions is the most modern and most successful method for treating a large number of different cancer types today. This method of treatment would be available to all citizens in the region through the Institute, which makes it one of the best examples of “science for society” projects.

At the same time, the project would be unique in the world, as the Institute would devote 50 percent of its operating hours to biomedical research. About 1,000 researchers, scientists, engineers, physicists and physicians would work on the project, while the number of patients would cover the needs of a territory of about 20 million inhabitants.